The Boomers are coming for aged care. Australia must be ready

In two years, the oldest of the Baby Boomers, Australia’s mega-generation, will turn 80.

With their sheer numbers, the Boomers have transformed every stage of life they have entered. And now the arrival of the Baby Boomers seems set to trigger major changes to our aged care system.

Earlier this year, the federal government’s aged care taskforce to reform and improve care provided to Australia’s ageing population handed down its recommendations. Among them, the possibility Australians with more assets could pay a greater share of their everyday costs in aged care.

The federal government is also pushing aged care facilities to do more clinically, with the sector’s care minutes responsibility per resident increasing to an average of 215 minutes per day, including 44 minutes of direct care from a registered nurse from October 1.

Faced with older residents, with more complex health conditions, the aged care facilities of the future will need to be more akin to health facilities than retirement villages.

Australia’s failure to provide this care is already being seen in its hospitals, where so-called “bed block” sees hundreds of people taking up beds in public hospitals across NSW because they are unable to be discharged to an appropriate next location, such as an aged care facility.

But, as David Crowe reported this week, including in today’s Sun-Herald, the sector is facing a critical shortage of nurses and beds, casting doubts over the feasibility of the federal government’s plans.

Official figures show there are 50,232 nurses working in aged care this year. However, with government forecasts showing demand for 55,572, there is need for more than 5000 more.

The sector could also be short more than 21,000 beds in five years’ time as providers hold off on investment under the current federal rules, waiting for Labor and the Coalition to strike a deal on the new funding regime.

A member of the taskforce, Grant Corderoy of accounting firm Stewart Brown, estimated that providers would add 11,500 beds in the six years to 2030 but would close 32,700 over the same period.

The taskforce has warned the sector needs a $37 billion extra in investment by 2050 to build enough places and services, but Labor and the Coalition have not reached a deal despite intense negotiations.

The message from the aged care taskforce, and the royal commission before it, is clear: aged care in this country, and the way it is governed and funded, needs to change if it is to be able to support the growing group of people who will rely on it.

Mandatory nursing hours in aged care will improve the quality of clinical care these facilities can provide. They are an important part of ensuring Australians receive the care they need in their final years, but there needs to be enough staff to manage this policy.

While providers say they cannot find the workers, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is fair to say that the sector should consider increasing salaries for aged care nurses, who currently make less than their hospital counterparts.

But, in turn, the aged care sector is fair to say it needs to receive a plan for funding operations going forward.

It is clear the aged care sector needs reform, and both sides of politics must commit to providing it.

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