Scott Morrison promises extra funding for aged care by Christmas

Scott Morrison calls for ‘new culture of respect for older Australians’ and vows extra funding for aged-care by Christmas.

Scott Morrison will have to commit at least an extra $1.7 billion per year to fix the backlog of more than 100,000 Australians waiting to access home care packages, aged care advocates warned after he promised more funding for the sector before Christmas.

The Prime Minister also called for “a new culture of respect for older Australians” following the release of the aged care royal commission’s scathing interim report, which found the system was in a shocking state of neglect that “diminishes Australia as a nation”.

Royal commissioners Lynelle Briggs and Richard Tracey, who died last month seven weeks after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, said immediate action should be taken to provide home care packages to reduce the waiting list for higher level care at home.

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Mr Morrison said a relevant package would be unveiled in the mid-year budget update.

“I spoke again to the Treasurer (Josh Frydenberg), the Finance Minister (Mathias Cormann) last night and the Minister Richard Colbeck. We have been looking for that input from the royal commission to inform this next set of decisions,” he told 3AW radio.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m so careful about our spending in the budget because I’ve been saying for some time now that we knew we would need to address issues coming out of this royal commission on aged care.”

Margot Harker gave evidence to the Aged Care Royal Commission of her experiences receiving in-home care.

The commissioners also identified the significant over-reliance on chemical restraint and getting 6000 young disabled people out of nursing homes as areas that must urgently be addressed.

The federal and state health ministers pledged on Friday to improve medication management for those in aged care, with a report being commissioned to help inform new best practice models and national standards.

Aged and Community Services Australia, representing non-profit aged care providers, has called for 40,000 level three and four home care packages this financial year to reduce the waiting list that had reached 120,000 people.

ACSA estimates that would cost roughly $1.7bn annually, based on the current subsidy rates.

Council on the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates said billions of dollars was required to reduce the backlog so older people were waiting a maximum of three months for a home care package, but a bolstered workforce was also necessary to look after the increase of people accessing aged care.

“As much as I’d like to have everybody on that waiting list off it, you can’t do it overnight responsibly,” Mr Yates said.

“That will require a series of planned workforce measures. If I were the Prime Minister I’d put together a task group comprising the department, ourselves as representatives of the consumers and provider peak bodies, giving them 30 days to come up with an interim plan which will fit with the MYEFO time frame.”

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck acknowledged the way home care packages were delivered had to be reformed, which would “take a little while”, and more packages were needed.

“We want to make sure all the taxpayers funds that we’re putting into provision of home care is actually being delivered, and there’s about $600 million that’s sitting in accounts not being used at the moment. We want the money that we’re putting in to be actually delivering care to Australians,” he told Sky News.

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner, Janet Anderson, conceded it was a sector “which in some parts is struggling”.

Regulatory powers are split between the Department of Health and ACQSC in a regime the royal commission found was “unfit for purpose” but under new laws the latter will become the sole regulator, which Ms Anderson said would deliver a “material improvement”.

“I’m not telling you the problem is at all sorted because clearly it’s not,” Ms Anderson said.

“There is a lot we need to do but we are galvanised to action and we have an aged care sector which has been shocked into greater reflection, greater consideration of the care they’re providing, the way they’re providing it and putting the consumer at the centre of that picture.”