Aged Care Royal Commission: Nurse-to-resident ratios key

After a damning Royal Commission report into aged care was handed to the Governor-General, the industry has apologised.

Aged care operators apologised for “harm’’ to elderly Australians in nursing homes as a Royal Commission recommended pay rises and extra staff in a bombshell report handed to the Governor-General today.

The damning report, more than 1000 pages long, demands a radical shake-up to aged care staffing, funding and duty of care to nursing home residents. 

The Morrison Government refused to release the full report today, after a two-year inquiry and more than 10,000 public submissions detailed a “cruel and shameful’’ system of aged care.

Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission made 124 recommendations for reform, including a wage rise for low-paid carers and set staffing ratios for nursing homes, which sometimes operate without any nurses onsite. 

The aged care industry made a public apology today for substandard care, but demanded more taxpayer funding to hire more staff.

“There have been some terrible examples in aged care where individuals or services have failed in their duties to provide safe and quality care,’’ Leading Aged Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney, representing nursing home operators, said today. 

“As we have said in evidence to the Royal Commission, these failures are unacceptable, and we are sorry for the harm they have caused.’’

A two-year inquiry and more than 10,000 public submissions detailed a “cruel and shameful’’ system of aged care.

Another industry lobby group, Aged and Community Services Australia, said 64 per cent of nursing homes are run at a loss, and need more taxpayer funding to hire extra staff. 

“We know (residents) want and deserve more staff to care for them, and want to make them better paid and trained,’’ chief executive Patricia Sparrow said today.

“We know we need to have more staff … the system needs to be resourced properly. 

“Australia spends less than half of what other comparable countries do on aged care.’’

Taxpayers will pour $22.5 billion into aged care this financial year, to care for 1.3 million elderly Australians too frail to look after themselves.

Australia’s nursing union today demanded set staffing ratios, warning that some operators are leaving nurses alone on a shift with low-skilled carers to look after 100 residents. 

“Despite the very best efforts of dedicated aged nurses and care workers, without safe staffing laws, it’s impossible for them to deliver the care that elderly residents need,’’ Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Annie Butler said today.

“Chronic understaffing in nursing homes cannot be ignored any longer.

“On average, nursing home residents are receiving only two hours 50 minutes of care per day, well below the four hours 18 minutes they should be getting.

“This is all because there is no evidence-based minimum staffing standard for nursing homes and no national laws to guarantee appropriate ratios of qualified nursing staff and aged care workers.’’

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid also demanded mandatory minimum staffing ratios.

“Ultimately, the AMA wants to see staffing increase to the point that we deliver a five-star rating in our aged care homes,’’ he said.

“Anything less does not deliver the health and care they deserve.’’

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government “will provide a full response during the course of the Budget”. Picture: Getty Images

The Federal Government – which is likely to respond to the report’s recommendation next week – yesterday refused to commit to staffing ratios.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he expected the report would identify “serious and disturbing issues” and he would read it over the weekend before responding to its recommendations.

“I called the Royal Commission into aged care as one of my first acts as Prime Minister because I was deeply distressed at many of the things that had been reported to me,” he said yesterday.

“This issue is about our family members … the way we deal with this it has to be beyond politics.

“We have to focus on getting the solutions right.”

Federal Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Senator Richard Colbeck, said the government was committed to ensuring that older Australians “receive the highest level of quality care’’.

“A strong aged care sector, with a high quality and skilled workforce, will provide older Australians with the care they rightly deserve and give all Australians confidence that our elderly are cared for with kindness, respect and dignity,’’ he said.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government “will provide a full response during the course of the Budget”.

“(Because) It will actually be a major initiative that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer had previously indicated,” Mr Hunt said on Thursday.

Nurse-to-resident ratios are critical to meaningful change, the peak body for nurses say. Picture: Getty Images

A News Corp Australia investigation last year found more than 100 vulnerable elderly Australians are being raped, assaulted and even murdered in residential aged care facilities every week.

But the real figure is likely to be 10 times higher because most go unreported and until recently aged care homes did not have to report them if they are carried out by someone with dementia.

Nurses working in aged care told News Corp Australia residents had maggots in their wounds, their incontinence pads were rationed to three per day and some residents aren’t showered regularly.

Even pain medication is rationed.

The Royal Commission heard 30,000 people either died waiting for a package or ended up in an aged care home unnecessarily because they couldn’t get government assistance to stay in their home.

News Corp Australia reported earlier this year the Aged Care Quality Standards Commission had slapped sanctions or compliance orders on 26 aged care homes after audits found serious risks to residents.

Originally published as Aged Care Royal Commission: Nurse-to-resident ratios key