Cyril Tooze’s final act may be to highlight My Aged Care’s national failure | David Penberthy

This is the human face of bureaucratic sloth. He’s chosen to die because our aged care system can’t keep its promises, writes David Penberthy.

Cyril Tooze does not have long to live.

He is using what little time he has for the greater good.

Mr Tooze this week became the human face of the delays facing older and infirmed Australians as they seek help through the Commonwealth’s My Aged Care scheme.

The number of people waiting and the length of time they are waiting have exploded to ridiculous levels.

There are 70,000 people waiting for packages. Many are waiting 12 to 15 months, often when they have even been granted approval for “urgent” care.

Cyril Tooze is one such person.

The 86-year-old has terminal heart and lung problems. He recently had a fall and has terrible bruises on his face.

He has no remaining relatives here in SA. His brother and niece live in Queensland and while he is in touch with them, they are not in a position to assist him here.

Cyril Tooze, 86, with independent MP Rebekha Sharkie at hospital in Victor Harbor, SA on October 17.

So he finds himself alone in a southern Fleurieu hospital, unable to be discharged at a time when the state grapples with ramping, unable to go home due to a lack of in-home care.

In January this year Mr Tooze was approved for a Level 4 Home Care Package – the highest available care – but due to the backlog of demand and staffing shortfalls none has been provided.

Since then his health has deteriorated so badly that Mr Tooze, who is 6 foot tall (183cm), now weighs 42kg.

Against this backdrop Cyril Tooze has decided to end his life.

He has started the process under SA’s Voluntary Assisted Dying laws, with the first doctor giving him sign-off, a second meeting with a second doctor next week.

How did it get to this?

How is it that someone who worked their whole life can be left to rot without care, with a system apparently “working” in the background to provide him with help, but so encumbered by challenges of cost, staffing and bureaucracy that it fails to honour that promise?

The only visitor Mr Tooze has had of late was the independent member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie.

Politicians can often seem useless and irritating. Sharkie in contrast is in a class of her own. She deserves recognition for the work she has been doing on this issue for a long time and the compassion she has shown, specifically to Mr Tooze.

When she heard of his case she was straight in to visit with some Mr Kipling cakes, which Mr Tooze loves.

She wrote the following day to Aged Care Minister Anika Wells highlighting his case.

The troubling thing about Mr Tooze is that his case isn’t some dramatic outlier but the worst version of a common problem.

Ms Sharkie has shared with me some of her other correspondence with the minister about this issue.

Within the Mayo electorate alone there are multiple stories that confirm the scale of this national policy failure.

Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

They are stories of mind-numbing bureaucratic sloth affecting people for whom time is of the essence. Ms Sharkie writes:

“One 93-year-old woman’s aged care co-ordinator requested an assessment approximately eight months ago when she formed the view that the recipient needed a higher level of care than her existing package allowed.

“The recipient’s family was advised that under rules introduced in 2022, an assessment could not be booked until less than $1000 unspent funding remained under her existing package.

“By the time those funds fell beneath the $1000 threshold, her needs were becoming even more acute.

“The four-week wait for an assessment and subsequent national waiting period for the higher-level package have left her without appropriate levels of care.

“In another case, a 97-year-old woman was kept waiting for nearly three months for her assessment for a level 4 aged care package, after having two falls in May.

“Despite her care co-ordinator applying for an ‘urgent’ assessment on 22 May, 2023, she was not able to secure an assessment appointment until 16 August, 2023.”

In an actual sense, not a literal one, people are dying waiting for the approval and delivery of these packages.

Soon Mr Tooze will be one of them, unless he can be talked around, which Ms Sharkie is still trying to do, visiting her constituent again this week armed with more Mr Kipling cakes.

I’ve spoken to Mr Tooze a couple of times.

He is intelligent and charming. His treatment is made worse by the fact that he himself worked as a carer well into his 70s, looking after the elderly and disabled.

Now our country can’t repay him the favour in his final years.

“This isn’t a life,” he said.

It is my understanding that since the coverage this week Mr Tooze has been told a temporary care solution might be available.

But he is so frail and bedridden that he can no longer return home.

Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Aged Care Minister Anika Wells provided this statement:

“Complex cases like Mr Tooze’s are heart wrenching. His case and others like his are a big part of the reason the government and I are committed to reforming the aged care system.

“We have been working hard to deliver a new rights-based aged care bill and new Support at Home program that will give older Australians faster access and more tailored support so they can stay at home longer.

“Our $4.3 billion investment in the new Support at Home program will benefit around 1.4 million Australians by 2035, helping them remain independent, in their home and their community for longer.

“The program will deliver support for 300,000 more participants in the next 10 years, shorter average wait times from assessment to when people receive support, more tailored support with eight ongoing classifications up to around $78,000 a year, support for home modifications with up to $15,000 to make homes safer, and fast access to assistive technology like walkers and wheelchairs.”

It all sounds great. Too late though for Mr Tooze.

Good on him for causing a ruckus on his way out.