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Source: Photos.com -
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A former award winning Palmerston North rest home is being closed down following a complaint about an elderly woman being tied to a bed.
An immediate three-day quality audit of the Rose A Lea Rest Home was ordered by the Mid Central District Health Board, which began last Friday.
A four-member Central Technical Advisory Service team was asked to investigate the rest home's clinical and financial management, governance, staff management and facility systems.
The investigation was sparked by a photograph of a Rose A Lea rest home resident who was allegedly tied to a bed.
Rest home worker Sharell Couchman snapped the photo of the resident on her cell phone. She had been working there less than a month.
"Her joints were ceasing up so they thought that the best way to stop that, well to straighten her leg, was to tie her leg up to the bed," she says.
The Mid Central District Health Board confirmed on Tuesday that it terminated its contact with Rose A Lea and its 13 residents have been transferred to other facilities.
Rose A Lea Rest Home, owned and operated by Joyce and Bryan Wenmoth, is contracted by the DHB to provide 25 rest home level care beds.
DHB Funding Division General Manager Mike Grant says the Wenmoths also operate Rimu Lodge and assessors are currently checking the general condition of its residents.
Rose A Lea is not the first rest home to come under investigation.
Last month the Health and Disability Commissioner issued damning reports about a Christchurch residence after revelations an elderly client went without showering for an entire year and another was not properly fed.
And last year the Health Ministry closed an Auckland rest home following complaints an elderly woman was gagged by a staff member.
