Sanctions have just been imposed on another Victorian nursing home. It is reported that lack of food, drinks and inadequate health care were just some of the problems found by the accreditors.  There are now four facilities in Victorian experiencing sanctions. Nationally, there are 11 under sanction.

The news reports on these latest sanctions are just coming in as this Column is being written. They contain several interesting features.

Firstly, it was found that there were serious problems at this aged-care home back in October last year. And here we are at the end of March and the issues are still not resolved. That is a very long time for frail, aged residents to wait to receive adequate food and drinks.

Secondly, and most bizarrely, the facility manager mentions the February bush-fires as part of the reason why it has taken so long to meet expected outcomes as the home had to evacuate residents for a time in February. It is difficult to understand how the evacuation of residents has anything to do with this facility not being able to provide adequate nutrition, hydration and clinical care. In fact, you might even consider that the proximity of the fires, and the disturbance of evacuation, would heighten awareness of the need for good food and having enough water to drink.

In any case, anyone who seeks to care for frail, older people should not have to be told how to provide good nutrition and adequate hydration. If they don’t know that, why are they even in this sector?

Thirdly, one gets the sense that, maybe, just maybe, we have a Minister for Ageing who is getting somewhat serious about trying to ensure that providers do what they are meant to be doing. Well, at the very least it seems that she is not resiling from imposing sanctions in some of the places that aren’t up to scratch – even if it takes a long time to do so. Perhaps she is putting a message out there that standards of care do need to be upheld. We can but hope!

Finally, it is of great interest that the news reports about this aged-care home state that it did not have enough qualified staff. Now that is a new one. Those of us concerned about aged care have long bemoaned the fact that there are few, if any, requirements about having skilled staff on duty. 

Now, wouldn’t it be something if Minister Elliot actually had the courage to set some decent minimum staff/resident ratios. But perhaps that is too much to hope.