Aged care crisis

The peak medical body said they would not wait until November 2020 for the Aged Care Royal Commission findings as they believed the elderly were suffering now.

Their submission puts pressure on the government to significantly increase Federal Government aged-care funding which included providing home-care packages, 24-hour on-site nurses, staff-to-patient ratios and incentives for GPs to visit centres.

Ms Rivett said without the government immediately increasing funding by at least $18 per patient, per day, the elderly would have nowhere to go as centres would have no choice but to go into administration.

“I think we shall see more elderly people enter residential care early as they will not have access to home care packages if no further packages are released,” Ms Rivett said.

“I also believe if residential care does not receive funding to meet consumer care and service needs, we shall see more residential care facilities close their doors, more staff leave the industry as they become more disillusioned, as they can not meet consumer needs and expectations.

“There is a link between funding and the amount of care hours you can deliver,” she said.

Although Ms Rivett believes there needs to be an increase in medical attention given, she wants the government to understand that centres are very different to hospitals.

“They are places where the frail, elderly live and most residents want more than just medical care; they want to feel part of the community, and socially engaged with staff who can deliver the care and services they need,” she said.

As more than 100,000 elderly people wait to go into care, Ms Rivett said the lack of government action was appalling.

“The aged in our community deserve more than this,” Ms Rivett said.

“Currently Australia spends less on aged care than any of other westernised country.

“How unfair is this?”

More about aged care

Murchison nursing home placed into administration

Lifting the standard of hospital food