Aged Care Crisis
for consumers, by consumers
Accreditation has never been an effective regulator. It has failed in the USA, the UK and Australia.
Accreditation was not designed to be a regulator, was not intended to be a regulator and between 1997 and 2014 the agency insisted it was not a regulator – although everyone else knew it was a central part of the regulation that government and industry boasted of. As the criticisms show accreditation and regulation are incompatible.
Criticism of Senate Report Community Affairs April 2019: "Effectiveness of the Aged Care Quality Assessment and accreditation framework for protecting residents from abuse and poor practices, and ensuring proper clinical and medical care standards are maintained and practiced"
Aged care is currently undergoing major changes following the Federal Government’s decision to open the aged care sector up to the market. We believe that these changes will increase many of the pressures, which currently prevail within the sector. For example, staffing is the largest on-going expenditure faced by aged-care providers and pressures to reduce costs will undoubtedly affect staffing levels.
There is evidence to suggest that nursing home managers are under pressure to meet their profit targets and reducing staff to do so, often placing vulnerable residents at risk of elder abuse. When staffing is reduced and registered nurses are replaced by lower-skilled staff, care quality suffers.
A number of articles and presentations suggest that family members have "unrealistic expectations" in aged care. However, there are major problems in the aged care system and too many residents are suffering as a result.
Claims about "unrealistic expectations" are a cop out. If some have unrealistic expectations, it's because of the branding and marketing by the aged care industry and the unrealistic image of a "world class system" promoted by government.
Intense criticism about staffing led to the 2016 Aged Care Workforce Inquiry which revealed that there were indeed major deficiencies in the number and training of staff. Much of the criticism was that the industry was putting profits before care and that they, and the managerial culture were largely responsible for what had happened.
After 21 years of opacity about staffing and care, the aged-care community and workforce needs and deserves guaranteed clarity.
MP Rebekha Sharkie has recently introduced a Bill (which has now progressed to an Inquiry) requiring every aged care home to disclose and publish quarterly staff/resident ratios, providing some much-needed transparency to aged care.
