‘There’s no money’
John Loizou spends every night in his lounge, sleeping in a chair.
He got rid of a bed he never used months ago, and the “bedroom“in his council flat in Miramar holds simply drawers and a mattresses for when the grandkids come to stay.
The 69-year-old has an incurable heart condition which means he cannot lie flat, or his heart could stop, he said.
“There’s two heart pumps, one pumps blood one pumps oxygen. The one that pumps oxygen is buggered, so it’s working overtime.”
His tired and drooping recliner granted him a couple of hours’ sleep each night, not helped by the uncomfortable breathing machine strapped to his face.
An assessment by an occupational therapist was done in late February and a referral was made for a La-Z-Boy chair or hospital bed. After months of waiting, an occupational therapist told him earlier this month he was in line for a chair “but there’s no money”.
Loizou was among the 398 people in the Wellington region alone who were referred to Whaikaha the Ministry for Disabled People for equipment in the four months to July 12.
Up to 10% of those applications are ranked at a lower priority than others and “awaiting further funding to be available”, Whaikaha said.
Whaikaha imposed sudden changes in March on the way funding and applications were assessed when it was about to run out of money.
The way the changes were handled left the ministry promising it wasn’t a funding cut and later saw then-Minister Penny Simmonds stripped of the portfolio.
The changes sent a clear message to people with health and disability needs, said advocate Bettina Syme, northern general manager for support group CCS Disability Action.
“You will wait longer, you will experience more discomfort, and you will require higher levels of people being involved in your life for support until you receive what you need and, in the meantime, you must have a smaller life.”
The priority levels would “ensure that people with the highest needs receive support”, Whaikaha said.
“What it actually does is it sets disabled people up to be in competition with each other,” Syme said. “The problem shouldn’t be laid at the door of disabled people to say, well, your need is too great.”
Jeremy Glasier, general manager for Able Axcess, the country’s larg
est supplier of wheelchair and accessibility ramps said the “cap“on spending had halved the ability to install ramps. No holds barred, it could install up to 30 ramps per week and demand was there. But in recent weeks it had been about half that, he said.
In some cases they were installing ramps and hoping funding would come through later, as the person needed the ramp to leave hospital. “Our unofficial rule is do the right thing. The right thing sometimes is putting a ramp in ahead of the purchase order.
“The person will go up and down the ramp and then burst into tears, because it’s the first time they’ve been out of their house for three months.
“This cap is making that scenario worse for people and creating more long-term effects.”
Whaikaha said any equipment requests were processed “with consideration to daily budget allocations and priority levels”.
For Enable, the largest provider of disability equipment in the country, that daily budget is, on average $339,000.
This began on May 16 “and is reflective of the increased demand and imperative to remain tightly within annual Ministry budgets”, it said in a statement.
The head of Occupational Therapy NZ, Renaldo R Christians, said the needs of a person should be driving resources, not funding.
“It’s fairly atrocious to place daily budget limits on a person’s health ... Daily limits limit their life.”
But both Whaikaha and Disabilities Minister Louise Upston said they had not ordered caps on providers’ spending. But the ministry said providers “are required to manage within their annual budget”.
Upston acknowledged the changes were disruptive for people and providers. “However, they were necessary to avoid a situation where funding for the critical services disabled people rely on ran out.”
Labour’s spokesperson for disability issues, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, understood anything not directly related to safety was being ranked priority two and that meant people would wait an untold amount of time. “It’s really down to the bare minimum.”
Radhakrishnan said the changes had been “devastating” and the government must restore flexible funding. “People are saying their world has shrunk as a result, and that's not the way we want to go as a society.”
Syme agreed – saying money should not be coming before basic rights.
“If you are taking away people’s dignity, choice, control and human rights so you can make your budget work then your budget is wrong ... and will never meet the need.”
Upston promised to provide the disabled community certainty around support services.
She would have more to say on plans to stabilise the system and address the ministry’s operational risks after early stages of an independent review into disability support services had been discussed by Cabinet. That was expected to happen in the coming weeks.
Loizou’s chair arrived on Wednesday, a few days after The Post started making inquiries. Yesterday, he was a new man, smiling at the door. “I only woke up once. I slept longer than I’ve ever slept. It made a big difference.”