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âItâs a facility not a homeâ: What will it take to reform aged care?
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Itâs past midday, but Merle Mitchellâs breakfast dishes were still on her table when staff at her Melbourne aged care facility brought in her lunch.
âI wouldnât say this place is a bad place, unlike lots of places,â she says.
Merle Mitchell.
Credit:Jason South
Her facility did not experience the catastrophic outbreaks of COVID-19 experienced in other homes last year, but staffing levels mean thereâs one nurse at night to 79 residents.
âItâs still a facility, itâs still not a home, and it never will be while we have the current arrangements for how we run these places.â
It s a facility not a home : What will it take to reform aged care? smh.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smh.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Subscriber only Australia s aged care sector has united to demand big-picture reform follow the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety later this month, with the Page electorate a target for the campaign. Launching the It s Time to Care About Aged Care campaign, the Australian Aged Care Collaboration alliance will target key electorates where more than 800,000 older Australians live in an attempt to encourage the national parliament to address the sector s many challenges. AACC representatives Patricia Sparrow said more than 20 government aged care reviews in 20 years had failed to fix the inadequate system. After 20 years of missed opportunities, Australia cannot let the release of the final Royal Commission report later this month pass without taking real action, Ms Sparrow said.
Less than a quarter of Australians in residential aged care facilities feel their needs are always met, and a majority of taxpayers are willing to pay increased taxes to address the “alarming” underperformance, aged care royal commission research has found. Meanwhile, the Morrison government has defended its record on aged care funding as the sector launches a political campaign targeting marginal electorates that calls for a doubling of.