2020 AGM Te Hopai Trust Board: Comments from the Chair - Lorraine Christie
From the financial perspective the year can be considered successful in that we end it with a positive bank balance as well as paying off the mortgage for the development of the Owen Street 41 bed hospital wing.
We need to thank the Board Finance Committee for its strong guidance over this and all our developments.
As well I want to note that it is nearly 3 years since the Board made the fiscally robust decision to take on a full time Finance Manager. This was a good decision and we are reaping the rewards. Thank you Tracy Broadley.
I will highlight a few of the achievements during the year.
- We are very grateful to Management and staff for acting quickly and in a professional and structured way to the challenge of Covid-19. By effectively managing access to Te Hopai, sectioning off an isolation area should it be needed and communicating often to residents, whanau and staff they kept our residents safe. Thank you General Manager Pakize Sari, Clinical Manager Jill Kerridge and all staff who were the front line of this response and went far beyond the call of duty.
- The Board was impressed when the initial audit of PPE showed healthy stocks, indicating how well prepared Management was for such an outbreak. When representatives from the DHB were charged by the MoH to check the response to Covid-19 in Care Facilities, they gave a first grade rating to Te Hopai’s response effort and had no recommendations as to how things could have been done better.
- It is noteworthy that the Ombudsman’s office used Te Hopai as a resource/model, when planning how they would monitor the treatment and conditions in health and disability facilities such as dementia units throughout NZ.
- Over this year we invested in more Information Technology. Along with Medi map, (medication management), we now have:
- eCase - a Resident management system
- Time Target - Staff roster and timesheet system
- Laptops and Tablets were purchased thanks to the assistance of the Sutherland Self-Help Group, an investment which was very timely as during the Covid-19 shutdown they were paramount in allowing staff to help residents and their whanau keep in touch
- Te Hopai had positive media coverage thanks to Managing Director/Trustee Dave Stewart: a series of radio discussions around the responses of aged care to the LGBT community, our Covid-19 journey and an article in the Business View Oceania Magazine. We have also become more pro active on Social Media and tweets have increased during this year
- It was pleasing to see a rise in staff satisfaction 88% (benchmark 81%)
- The measure of how happy people are, working at Te Hopai was 4.25 (up from 3.96 in 2019) against a benchmark of 4.05
- There has been an improvement in the look and taste of food being presented to residents with the change to Cater Plus. Always a work in progress.
- Together with the General Manager the Board has begun a process of examining what potential there is for further development of the Te Hopai facility. As well we are investigating the possibility of acquiring additional land.
- With 3 Board Members standing down today we advertised and recruited three new Board Members who will join us at the September meeting: Andrea McCance, Mary Schumacher, and Rory Mathews. All applications were of a very high standard and advertising appears to scope a wider range than we have previously canvassed.
Finally, and on behalf of all the Board I want to record our gratitude to Sue Ellis, Jim McGuinness and Euan Wright, who are leaving the Board today.
Thankyou Sue Ellis
In particular we value the knowledge of the age care sector and your nursing experience which you have brought to Board discussions over the last 14 years. I know Pakize too has valued the support and understanding you have offered her around this table. We will miss you but wish you all the best for the future.
Jim McGuiness
You have been 9 years on the Board arriving in time to be part of the planning and building of the Owen Street Development. Your knowledge and long experience in the building sector was an enormous help in this big project and is much appreciated. Your wise contribution to the financial discussions around the Board table will also be missed.
Euan Wright
From 1991 to 1999 you contributed in your capacity as Secretary to the Board becoming a trustee in 1999.
In 2000 you became Chair, a position you chose to stand down from in 2011 while remaining on the Board and continuing as head of the Finance Committee until today.
For 29 years the Board has benefited from your considered and strong guidance, and as Pakize puts it “your eagle eyes,” especially in financial matters over this long period. Your contribution to Te Hopai is greatly valued and will be missed.
You were paramount in the re development of the Rest Home Extension, the relationship with the Jewish Community, then the new Dementia Wing and more recently the Owen Street Development.
Under your wise financial guidance all the mortgages for these developments have been paid and it is somewhat appropriate that the most recent one, Owen Street has been settled before you leave us.
Te Hopai has also benefited financially in many ways from your community contacts especially with the Sutherland Self Help Trust and The Public Trust..
Always helpful, supporting and knowledgeable you will be irreplaceable and will be missed.
Thank you on behalf of the Board and Staff for all you have so generously given over the last 29 years.
Lorraine Christie
Chair
Euan Wright
Jim McGuiness
Sue Ellis
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