Aged Care Royal Commission: Government response too slow and inadequate say campaigners

The Government needs to act quicker to save the aged care industry say advocates, as they point out two key issues that need to be addressed.

A year on from a shocking report that found elderly people were being “neglected” in aged care homes, advocates say the Government’s response has been inadequate and slow.

The Royal Commission into aged care put forward 148 recommendations after it found that the current system was substandard and unsafe and staff were “underpaid, undervalued and insufficiently trained”.

Since then, the staffing crisis within the industry has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Exhausted and stressed staff – paid as little as $22 an hour – who have been battling on the

Covid frontline for the last two years, have been leaving the workforce in droves.

Aged care residents in Australia are being “neglected”, a report has found.

Australian Aged Care Collaboration spokesman Sean Rooney warned that without immediate changes to better support the workforce, the aged care sector would be unable to recover from the current crisis.

“We need the government to step up and commit to funding a pay rise for aged care staff and to put resources into recruitment and retention of staff as well as training,” he said.

Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive, Paul Sadler, said the Government had so far evaded addressing two key issues of paying aged care workers what they were worth and detailing how high quality aged care was to be financed into the future.

Paul Sadler says the Government needs address the workforce crisis in aged care. Picture: John Appleyard

“Action on Royal Commission-recommended reform is critical and the opportunity for lasting, systemic change must not be kicked down the road by Government or lost altogether,” he said.

More than 1700 aged care residents have died from Covid-19, with the high numbers in part being blamed on a slow booster rollout, a lack of PPE and staff shortages.

The staffing crisis was so bad the Government had to send in Australian Defence Force personnel into some aged care homes.

Labor’s Clare O'Neil in the House of Representatives says she supports a wage increase for aged care staff. Picture: AAP

Shadow Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Clare O’Neil, said a year on from the Royal Commission’s report, a quarter of aged care worker shifts are now not being filled, residents wounds aren’t being tended to and they’re still not getting food and water.

She said Labor supported aged care workers getting a pay rise and if elected would make a submission to Fair Work in support of their case.

Ms O’Neil added that the Government had flat out rejected or listed ‘for further consideration’ some 32 recommendations made by the Royal Commission, which constitutes nearly a quarter of the report.

Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt has defended the Government’s response to the Royal Commission’s report. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, and Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck defended the Government’s response so far, and said it had “achieved significant reform across the five pillars of its five year plan to deliver respect, care and dignity for every senior Australian”.

“We responded to the recommendations and are now implementing this once-in-a-generation reform that puts senior Australians first,” Minister Hunt said.

He said it has committed more than $18.3 billion to making changes and the Government’s comprehensive response to all 148 recommendations outlines a five-year plan to reinforce the quality of care for senior Australians.

Originally published as Aged Care Royal Commission: Government response too slow and inadequate say campaigners