Key recommendation aged care commission won't consider

ACCREDITATION schemes for retirement villages should become be mandatory but royal commission will turn a blind eye.

A new clubhouse at Churches of Christ Regency Park Retirement Village in Warwick is on track to be completed in November. Picture: Contributed

A Warwick retirement village manager said accreditation should become a mandatory requirement for retirement villages in Queensland, following last week's announcement of a Royal Commission into Aged Care.

It is understood the royal commission, initiated by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will not include retirement villages in its terms of reference because they fall under state and territory jurisdictions.

The announcement followed an audit of Queensland aged care facilities, which found chronic understaffing and associated neglect in all 30 of the state's federal electorates.

But Regency Park retirement living manager Mr Newley said it was an important time to also consider the retirement village sector.

Regency Park Retirement Village recently obtained accreditation through the International Retirement Community Accreditation Scheme.

The process involved police and qualification checks on staff, an assessment of the facility's privacy and data storage, ensuring residents had access to independent legal advice and and resident satisfaction surveys.

Mr Newley said finding an accredited retirement village was something buyers should consider when searching for a place to settle down.

Regency Park retirement living manager Chris Newley said he was pleased his facility had obtained official retirement village accreditation for quality assurance. Picture: Marian Faa

"I think it is sad there is a need for things like police checks but I think it is good thing when you are dealing with a potentially vulnerable portion of the population," he said.

Accreditation is voluntary for retirement villages in Queensland under current legislation.

But Mr Newley expects it will become compulsory in the future.

He was unaware of any issues pertaining to aged care services in the region but said obtaining accreditation was a way of assuring quality control.

"I really like the accreditation I am glad we got that completed again," Mr Newley said.

"It is important to make sure we have the right people working with our elderly population.

Older people want to retire in style and comfort. Picture: Halfpoint

Appalling aged cared practices

Queensland Nurses and Midwives' Union Secretary Beth Mohle said checks of more than 80 aged care facilities from Cairns and Cloncurry to Coolangatta found that all failed to provide the recommended hours of care for elderly residents.

The audit found elderly Queenslanders were routinely forced to wait for help and were not properly washed, fed, medicated, exercised or turned. They received 1.69 hours of care below the recommended 4.3 hours per resident.

"Nurses, midwives and QNMU staff, tired of federal inaction on aged care, recently took matters into their own hands to conduct a secret audit of aged care facilities,'' Ms Mohle said.

"Today we reveal the federal electorate breakdown of the audit's findings. The results are startling.

"The QNMU's audit has confirmed Queensland's aged care facilities are in crisis due to chronic understaffing and the complete lack of federal staffing laws in Australia's private aged care industry.''

The QNMU audit also found more than 77 per cent of aged care staff were not nurses, and not properly trained to provide care for the elderly, 80.5 per cent said staff levels were unsafe at their facility, and 57 per cent said they did not have enough time to properly feed residents.