By Lee Scanlon of 
Photo: 123RF
Reefton people desperate to save their only rest home packed last night's Inangahua Community Board (ICB) meeting.
"We had probably the biggest crowd we've ever had at a community board meeting - there was standing room only," said the board's acting chair, Buller District councillor Graeme Neylon.
About 60 locals turned up, mostly concerned at the Ziman House closure.
Health New Zealand announced last week the Reefton aged residential care (ARC) facility was now permanently closed.
The 12-bed home rest home has been in limbo since March 2022 when the former West Coast District Health Board (DHB) shut it suddenly citing unsustainable staffing levels. At the time, the DHB promised the closure was temporary.
But the home has never reopened, forcing Reefton people needing ARC to leave town. The closest alternatives are in Greymouth or Westport, both about 80km away.
Neylon said the Reefton Health Action Group (RHAG) had exhausted all avenues and had asked the ICB for help.
"We're going to look at all possible options, trust models, even down to private ownership."
People at Tuesday night's meeting had questioned why Ziman House was uneconomic when a similar facility was thriving in Murchison, he said.
The ICB would look at the Murchison model and at another successful model in Oxford.
"I think we owe it to the community to explore everything to the nth degree… the old DHB have acted in bad faith," Neylon said.
"Maybe they can make up a bit of good faith by actually coming in with us and helping us along the journey towards a trust."
He hoped Health NZ West Coast would be prepared to share its financial information about Ziman House.
"Let us know where it's not economic and where we would need to fill the gaps. They must have a wealth of knowledge after all those years. All we're asking is for them to do the decent thing and share some of that knowledge."
Neylon told Tuesday night's meeting those trusts could become umbrella organisations for Ziman House, rather than Reefton setting up a new trust.
He said a reopened Ziman House might be able to charge higher fees because Reefton ARC care would save families the cost of travelling to Greymouth or Westport to visit their loved ones.
Announcing the closure last week, Health NZ director ageing well - national commissioning - Andy Inder said Ziman House's residential care was neither feasible nor sustainable from a staffing or financial perspective, for Health NZ.
"Ziman House is not fit-for-purpose as a modern ARC facility and the layout does not easily support the nursing model of care usually delivered in an ARC facility," Inder said.
"It will require significant investment to improve Ziman House to appropriate standards, which we don't believe is the best use of funding."
Inder said it had been difficult to employ a sustainable nursing staff in Reefton to ensure safe care for Ziman House residents.
He said Ziman House beds cost four times the average cost of rest home level care and nearly three times the average cost of hospital level care.
Health NZ would consult the community on the options for new services, Inder said. They included transport to O'Conor Home, transport for shopping, a community day activity programme and in-home respite support.
