Call for transformation, not tinkering

A split on recommendations by the aged care royal commissioners is ‘disappointing, but no excuse for delaying reform’.

Aged and Community Services Australia CEO Patricia Sparrow.

A split on key policy recommendations by the two aged care royal commissioners was “disappointing”, but no excuse for delaying big-picture reform in aged care, a leading advocate has warned.

Aged Care and Community Services Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow said she welcomed the Morrison government’s pledge to immediately roll out $452.2m in funding as a “starting point for reform”. However, she argued that a complete overhaul of the system — and not just “more top-ups” — was necessary.

“There is no split on the need for a total overhaul that means providers are resourced to employ more staff and deliver more care and support,” Ms Sparrow said. “This cannot be used as an excuse to not progress major reforms.”

She said “big problems” had been raised by the report and it was now time for “big solutions”.

 

One of the main problems in aged care has been the lack of a voice for older Australians about their own care needs. Older Persons Advocacy Network chief executive Craig Gear said he hoped this report would help to change that.

Mr Gear said the commission’s final report into the future of the aged-care sector was a “watershed moment” that would place older Australians at the centre of the transformation process after years of neglect.

At present, he said, aged care did not have the structures and resources in place to ensure the rights of older Australians were respected and protected.

“A lack of capacity and lack of intent by many aged-care providers to implement the Charter of Aged Care Rights in practice is a reflection of the deficits in the ­current system,” Mr Gear said.

“This is a watershed moment, which must result in older people being placed at the centre of the aged-care transformation process.

“Older people must be actively engaged in this transformation, through co-design, to reshape the aged-care system,” he added.

Others were more concerned about the government’s interim response to the final report, which included more than $450m in funding to ­address some of the ­report’s key concerns, including the home care waiting list.

Health Services Union president Gerard Hayes said he was “dismayed” by Scott Morrison’s “lack of ambition” to fix the embattled aged-care sector.

He said the government’s proposed package failed to address structural problems such as lack of staff, describing it as “tinkering rather than transformation”.

“The government is promising a more substantive package at the federal budget, but yet again the can gets kicked down the road,” Mr Hayes said.

The United Workers Union said it had no confidence that older Australians and frontline aged-care workers would ever see the benefits of reforms, as it accused the Prime Minister of carrying out a “shallow marketing exercise”.

UWU aged-care director Carolyn Smith blasted the government’s response for being “hasty and poorly thought through, with the heavy lifting pushed off to the federal budget”.

“In submissions to the royal commission, employers estimate at least 16,000 aged-care workers will be needed to clear the waiting list of 100,000,” she said. “Given this government’s track record of aged-care bungles, it is highly likely older Australians will continue to die waiting for places if this recommendation is accepted.”

National Seniors CEO John McCallum, who appeared at the commission as a witness four times, said the commission’s call to clear the home care waiting list by the end of the year was a key recommendation. “If we want to transform the system, the emphasis must be on home care,” he said. “It’s the pivot point for transformational change.”