“Monday night’s ABC 4Corners program has shown in graphic detail just how bad things are in many of Australia’s nursing homes, with relatives of residents resorting to planting secret cameras to record the evidence of violence and neglect perpetrated against their loved ones”, said CPSA Policy Coordinator Paul Versteege.
“A Royal Commission can fix the neglect and abuse, but nursing home residents in situations where they are being abused and/or neglected can’t wait a year or more for that to happen. They’ll be dead.
“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 to defray the cost of care.
“What the nation saw on Monday night’s ABC 4Corners program was nothing short of an indictment of the aged care regulator and the aged care providers who allow these horrors to happen in their facilities. Something must be done now to fix this in the interim.”
