Elderly lose home help while Minister misleads

Confirmation that 1500 elderly in the Canterbury region have had their home help reduced or stopped altogether is appalling, Labour Health spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.

“The decision to reduce or stop home support for 1500 people in just one region is an unacceptable way to treat elderly in New Zealand,” Ruth Dyson said.

“Elderly deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and so far the National Government has failed to do either.

“When Minister of Health Tony Ryall was asked in Parliament about he cuts to home support help in the Canterbury region he said more people would receive home help as a result of the ‘changes’ being made at Canterbury DHB.

“That statement was clearly a lie.

“When out of 2400 people who have their home support reviewed 1500 have it either stopped or reduced, then clearly the Minister was lying when he made claims about the review being about changes rather than cuts.

“It is an absolute disgrace that Minister of Health Tony Ryall has deliberately set out to mislead elderly and the public of New Zealand about the cuts to home help.

“Cutting home-help for 1400 people in Canterbury, and thousands more across South Canterbury, Southland, Wellington and Dunedin, shows just how little the National Government cares about the health and well being of elderly in New Zealand.

“Gerry Brownlee, Eric Roy, Jo Goodhew and Bill English who all hold seats where considerable cuts to home-help have occurred should face serious questions from their electorates as to why they have not done more to help the people of their regions.

“I can guarantee that when those MPs were asking elderly to vote for them at the last election none of them mentioned the enormous cuts to health services they would be voting for as part of the National Government caucus,” Ruth Dyson said.

ENDS

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