ANMF federal secretary Annie Butler said on March 1 that a succession of federal governments have “done nothing” to address the ever-increasing shortages of registered nurses and qualified carers working in the sector. She said this means that elderly residents have been “made to suffer”.
The ANMF said the government’s “immediate response” of $452 million in public funds to be tied to providing better care. Given the billions of taxpayer dollars aged-care providers receive annually, the lack of transparency must be rectified, it said.
After a two-year inquiry, involving more than 10,000 submissions and 23 public hearings, the commission produced a 1000-page final report.
She had a full denture on the top and a removable partial-denture on the bottom. While the top denture was taken out and cleaned at night, the carers had not noticed that she had a plate on the bottom and had never removed it for cleaning.
Her gums had grown over the wires and her entire bottom jaw was inflamed and infected. She didn’t have the ability to tell anyone what was wrong or even to understand herself why her mouth was sore. She was in considerable pain. This is how vulnerable someone with dementia is.
I couldn’t believe that this had happened to my mother in what was I thought a well-run care home. It had all the services people look for in aged care but it didn’t have enough workers with the training to truly care for someone or the procedures to make sure this oversight didn’t happen. And it’s not just this facility. Mum was in three different homes and this was the best.
Morrison has framed his government’s plan for the system as recalibrating it to place older Australians at the “centre” of the care being provided, with the government now considering which approach to mending the sector it will adopt in the lead-up to the 11 May federal budget.
Here are some of the key recommendations:
Funding
Central to the recommendations is the overhaul of the 1997 Aged Care Act, which the commission found had been motivated by government attempts to make budget savings.
The commission has recommended significant changes to the fees and personal contributions required from older Australians, including what it describes as a “simpler and fairer approach” to means testing.