“Monday night’s second ABC 4Corners program on aged care has shown in detail just how bad things are in Australia’s nursing homes. CPSA has said it many times: nursing homes are dangerous places and unsuitable for purpose”, said CPSA Policy Coordinator Paul Versteege.
“What the second ABC 4Corners program on aged care also showed is the incompetence of the Department of Health in accepting assurances from both the Aged Care Quality Agency as well as the complaints system that the industry was doing pretty well, when in fact the residential aged care sector was over-charging for, and under-delivering on quality care to put it mildly.
“What the second ABC 4Corners showed is how the previous (Labor) Government allowed the National Aged Care Alliance to become the only stakeholder forum it consulted. The current Government has continued that reliance on the National Aged Care Alliance, a group dominated by aged care providers, pushing the interests of aged care providers.
“A Royal Commission can fix the neglect and abuse of nursing home residents and can fix the corporate governance of the aged care sector, but people in residential aged care now, and those going in while the Royal Commission does its work, can’t wait a year or more for that to happen.”
“The Government must immediately impose mandatory staff-to-residents ratios on aged care providers. Providers receive distinct care subsidies for individual residents, calculated on the itemized need of each resident. This is a ready instrument that can be used to make providers use all of these care subsidies without cutting corners on staffing.”
