Smith defends funding cuts to programme aimed at elderly
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Some ACC programmes, including one targeted at preventing very elderly people suffering falls, were cut because they were not cost effective, ACC Minister Nick Smith says.
The decision to cut funding for the Otago Exercise Programme targeted at 80-year-olds and over was made earlier this month.
Under the programme, physiotherapists or trained nurses visited 80-year-olds and over (or 65-year-old and older if Maori or Polynesian) in their homes six times during a year, teaching leg strengthening and balance retraining exercises.
Otago Medical School’s Professor John Campbell at the time said the programme’s benefits were just beginning to be felt, but the number of ACC claims for falls in the area had already dropped.
The programme was targeted at those most likely to have a fall. Phone contact was maintained in between visits.
The programmes that were cut were those that were not cost efficient, he said. .
“Playing bowls, getting active, all those sorts of things.
“I think there are all sorts of things that older New Zealanders should be doing,” Dr Smith said. But I think it’s a long stretch for an organisation that’s in financial trouble to be funding some of those programmes, especially when their cost effectiveness is being questioned by the board.”