This year's election battle is well underway. Our political leaders are campaigning non-stop. The pork barreling has started. And ageism is rampant. The classic example is when almost everyone considers that rehabilitation and aged care isn’t worth a crumpet...

In case you haven't been following the hospital saga in Devonport, Tasmania, the Prime Minister is going to "save the local hospital from closing down", even though it wasn't really.

Tasmanian health planners had thought that aged care, rehabilitation, day surgery and an emergency department were actually worth something in the North West - and that the community would be well served by developing these facilities. But you don’t hear anyone talking about the importance of strategic health planning or of providing decent rehab and aged care in relation to this issue.

Meanwhile, staffing aged care becomes more and more problematic. Reports continue to come in showing dangerously low staffing levels in many instances. Aged-care nurses in Bendigo, Victoria are taking industrial action to raise awareness of patient safety issues.

And too often we hear of nurses and carers leaving their jobs in residential care because they are just unable to provide the quality care they know that residents should have.

The Australian Medical Association reminds us that medical services in aged-care facilities are also under threat with many GPs reluctant to visit facilities.

Such visits are time consuming and the rebates for the doctors insufficient to justify the time involved.

It would be great to hear the political parties coming up with some solutions to these problems – and the many others that plague residential aged care. Minister Pyne says that everything is just great as he goes about his electioneering and worrying about drugs in sport. He surfaced briefly in Adelaide this week to have a shot at the ALP.

Perhaps he is concerned about the 5 percent approval rating given to him in a recent poll!

The ALP has announced that it will create more aged-care beds in order to relieve the pressure on hospitals – but we haven’t heard much more than that.

The latest rumour has it that the election might be called in November. Hopefully by then someone might have dreamed up some policies to improve aged care. But I wouldn't be betting my walking frame on it.