Australia’s ‘shocking state of neglect’ exposed in royal commission

There needs to be fundamental changes to Australia’s “shocking state of neglect”, with our aged care system labelled a “national embarrassment”.

Australia’s aged care system faces a complete overhaul, starting with ending “a cruel lottery” where some older people die before ever finding out if they have won access.

The aged care royal commission wants fundamental reform and a redesign of a failing system it labelled “a shocking tale of neglect”, not mere patching up. Those comprehensive reforms will be outlined in the inquiry’s final report in November next year.

But the commission wants immediate action to cut home care waiting lists, stop the over-use of drugs to sedate residents and end “a national embarrassment” by stopping the flow of younger people with disabilities into aged care. In a scathing interim report, the commission described the aged care system as cruel, harmful, unkind and uncaring.

“It is a sad and shocking system that diminishes Australia as a nation,” commissioners Richard Tracey QC - who died last month - and Lynelle Briggs wrote.

The waiting list for aged care services was a cruel lottery, they said. The commission called for significant additional funding for home care packages, both immediately and into the future, to help older Australians remain in their homes.

“It is shocking that the express wishes of older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, with the supports they need, is downplayed by an expectation that they will manage,” the commissioners said.

Federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said the government was putting a lot more home care packages into the system, but said the way they were delivered into the market needed reform.

“I think given that there’s about $600 million of funds that are tied up with packages that’s not not actually being utilised to provide care, there’s also some reform of the system that’s required and we’ll start looking at that now,” he told reporters.

The commission said it was clear the government’s additional packages would not satisfy the current and growing demand for home care, given the extent of the pre-existing waiting list.

It also said there was no reason to delay action on chemical restraints and younger people being stuck in aged care.

Originally published as Australia’s ‘shocking state of neglect’ exposed in royal commission