Warning: This story contains material that may upset some people.
An Auckland retirement village manager has been criticised for behaving "poorly" and making staff feel "bullied and unsafe" after refusing to let a woman visit her dying mother.
The Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) has found the care provided by an Auckland retirement village to an elderly woman near the end of her life, breached the Code of Health & Disability Services Consumer's Rights.
In a report released on Monday, the HDC said when the woman did visit her mother, she was shocked to find her with a blackened tongue and hands, in pain and distressed with laboured breathing.
The mother, who was in her nineties, moved into Edmund Hillary Retirement Village (EHVR) to receive hospital-level care.
The woman's medical history included congestive heart failure, presumed pleural malignancy, hypothyroidism and hypertension.
At the time of admission, she was assessed as being at a low risk of falls, and she could mobilise independently and without aid, but needed one carer to provide some assistance with her activities of daily living.
After four months, the woman was suffering from nausea, vomiting and light-headedness. Her pain had significantly increased while her appetite had decreased.
Visiting hospice nurses identified that the woman's condition had deteriorated, and a GP assessment also indicated she was nearing the end of her life, however the nursing team at EHRV did not start planning for the woman's end-of-life care.
The end-of-life care plan was never started for the woman, despite her being assessed as "completely palliative" by the hospice and her declining condition.
When the woman's daughter visited during COVID-19 restrictions, the clinical manager attempted to prevent the visit because she believed the woman was not nearing the end of life.
While the daughter was waiting in the reception area, she was "confronted" by the clinical manager who said her mother wasn't in "palliative care and not in the act of dying".
The daughter said during the conversation, the clinical manager spoke "very aggressively" and made her feel like she was in the wrong for wanting to visit her mother.
A nurse who witnessed the interaction said the clinical manager acted "rudely and very unprofessionally" towards the daughter.
The Aged Care Commissioner later found that the behaviour of the clinical manager had caused nursing staff to feel intimidated and they did not feel comfortable questioning her judgement.
The clinical manager then took that nurse along with another to the nurses' station and told them off.
She stated she was the only staff member who could decide whether a resident was dying.
The manager said the elderly woman was not "actively dying" and could "live for another ten years".
Following this conversation, the daughter was eventually allowed to visit her mother.
