The only sure way of stopping new infections at Newmarch House is by transferring COVID-19 positive residents to hospital and by giving the home a deep-clean so that residents not infected can safely stay at a place that had a good reputation locally before the virus got in.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has suspended its regular compliance monitoring of nursing homes, replacing it with a ‘risk-based approach’, which appears to depend heavily on telephone contact and contact via Skype and Zoom with nursing homes. This means that the ACQSC to all intents and purposes has stopped entering nursing homes to do its statutory job of protecting nursing home residents when arguably their needs are highest given the coronavirus crisis.
“Now is the time to give the poorest of the poor a meaningful rise in their Newstart Allowance, which tracks 40% below the pension for singles and 27% for couples”, said CPSA Policy Manager Paul Versteege.
Pensioners call on the Australian Government to act immediately to fix the crisis in nursing home staffing following the recommendations of Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
The Aged Care Royal Commission’s Interim Report published today is very clear about the fact that successive Governments have done nothing to fix the very serious and grave problems afflicting aged care for well over twenty years, but the Interim Report fails to identify the reasons for Government inaction. While those reasons remain hidden, the problems in aged care cannot be resolved
Minister John Barilaro has suggested the Federal Government reconsider their position on Newstart today at NCOSS’s 'Putting Regional Needs on the Map' event and he has CPSA's support.
Who needs action movies, when Australian residential aged care offers cliff hangers like this: Bupa is reaccredited hours before it was to lose its accreditation!
The official accreditation of the Bupa Eden nursing home expires on 16 August 2019, with Bupa Eden set to continue operations without regulatory oversight.
It seems to be a little known fact, but the family home is already included in pension means testing.
Pensioners have one simple message to their federal politicians: raise the rate of Newstart, because it’s too low for everyone, including 185,000 Australians over-55, many of whom will never be able find work again.
Pensioners are calling on Federal MPs and Senators to support the Private Member’s Bill to be introduced into Federal Parliament today by South Australian Independent Rebekha Sharkie. The Bill makes it compulsory for nursing homes to publicly disclose their staffing ratios.
The reductions in the deeming rates are obviously going to produce better outcomes for affected pensioners, but over-deeming will still be rife.
Queensland nursing home residents abandoned in act of extreme elder abuse: Disqualify People Care Ltd, pensioners say
With one interest rate now announced and another one or two coming, it’s time the Government reviewed the deeming rates used to assess the income pensioners get from their bank accounts and term deposits.
“The spanking new Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has been shown up for what it is: an already tired re-iteration of its predecessor the Aged Care Quality Accreditation Agency and a watchdog lacking teeth and growl”, said Paul Versteege, Policy Manager for the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA).
“While there were many good things in the Opposition’s Budget reply speech, it failed to say anything meaningful about Newstart, the Clayton’s Age Pension, which is the 60% pension you get when you don’t get a pension”, said Paul Versteege, Policy Manager for the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association.
“There are encouraging reports about the federal opposition committing to increased health funding, but simply increasing funding for Medicare is not enough”, said Paul Versteege, Policy Manager for the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association.
“A one-off Energy Assistance Payment is about the only thing that pensioners and carers take away from a Budget that ignores the aged care, the inadequacy of Newstart, the lack of a decent national public dental scheme and the urgent need for affordable housing to be addressed at a national level”, said Paul Versteege, Policy Manager for the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association.
Nine out of seventy Australian BUPA nursing homes are currently under sanctions. The question is: why is BUPA to allow to continue operating as an aged care provider at all?
“The recommendations from the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into the efficiency and competitiveness of the superannuation industry should be the blueprint for superannuation reform in 2019”, said CPSA Policy Manager Paul Versteege.