Aged care watchdog established in wake of Oakden scandal to triple nursing home inspections
SURPRISE audits of nursing homes in South Australia will more than triple next year when a new federal aged care watchdog begins work.
- Inquiry wants nurses on duty 24 hours a day
- Aged Care Royal Commission to be based in Adelaide
- $106 million aged care overhaul to prevent another Oakden
- The findings of the ICAC report into Oakden
SURPRISE audits of nursing homes in South Australia will more than triple next year when a new federal aged care watchdog begins work.
On top of calling a Royal Commission into aged care in the wake of the Oakden scandal, the Federal Government is establishing the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to crack down on dodgy nursing homes from January.
The number of unannounced residential aged care audits by federal inspectors in SA and the Northern Territory is expected to increase from 20 this year to at least 73 in 2019
The extra audits will be used to identify substandard care and potential abuse of residents.
The Government will today announce the quality and safety commission will be headed by former senior federal and Northern Territory health executive Janet Anderson.
Geriatric health expert Associate Professor Michael Murray will be the commission’s interim chief clinical adviser.
Health Minister Greg Hunt and Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt said the quality and safety commission was being established as part of a national response to the Oakden scandal.
Mr Wyatt said the commission would usher in a “new era in certainty, accountability and confidence in aged care’’.
“Senior Australians and their families will know who to contact when they need help with a complaint, a concern or when something goes wrong,’’ he said.
“They will know that the aged care system is safe and will support their choices, rather than make choices for them.’’
SA has been declared “ground zero” in the national aged care crisis after inquiries in the state-run Oakden facility found residents were assaulted, over-medicated and isolated. The quality and safety commission will have $48 million to expand monitoring and compliance teams and identify substandard care in nursing homes.
It will combine roles currently performed by the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner, the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency and the federal Health Department.
The Adelaide-based royal commission into aged care care also will start its own investigations into substandard nursing homes.
Meanwhile, South Australia’s Upper House yesterday passed legislation establishing an Adult Safeguarding Unit, which will investigate aged care complaints.
The legislation is set to pass the Lower House with Opposition support in coming weeks.
The Australian Medical Association yesterday welcomed a finding by a federal parliamentary committee that all nursing homes be required to have at least one registered nurse on duty at all times
“This is a good first step. However, we recognise that one registered nurse will not be enough in many residential aged care facilities, which may have hundreds of frail residents,’’ AMA federal president Dr Tony Bartone said.