Pleas for urgency in aged care overhaul

A coalition of aged care advocates has raised concerns the Federal Government is behind in its promised makeover of the embattled sector, with the elderly to bear the brunt of these delays.
 
In the wake of a scathing Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety report, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to rollout a new Aged Care Act by July this year.
 
But with time ticking, advocacy groups are pleading with the Government to meet its own deadline.
 
The Council of the Ageing (COTA) and the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) have now teamed up with 10 additional peak bodies to release a new Key Issues Paper, making 23 recommendations for change.
 
Alongside the timely introduction of the new Act, the group is calling for updated legislation to take a ‘human rights-based approach with a focus on wellbeing, reablement and quality of life’, as well as pathways for older people to complain if they do not have this.
 
‘Older people shouldn’t have to wait any longer for their rights to be respected in aged care,’ the paper said.
 
To improve the sector, the coalition is calling for older Australians to be given choice and control over their care, and support to make their own decisions.
 
Professor Dimity Pond, a GP with a special interest in aged care, supports this approach, but raised concerns about resources for GPs to offer this support, telling newsGP much of the work currently being carried out is unfunded.
 
‘We do not get paid by the MBS for talking to a carer or a support person, and GPs who visit residential aged care spend so much unpaid time talking to carers,’ she said.
 
‘We also do things online because now we can access notes and medication charts online from home, and we don’t get paid for any of that.
 
‘Or we’re discussing the pros and cons of medication with a carer, and that’s actually quite complicated, so why aren’t we allowed to be paid for doing that work?’
 
Professor Pond said many GPs are putting in hours of unpaid work each week to support their elderly patients.
 
‘I’ve got one patient in residential aged care at the moment, and she would probably occupy an hour a week, and I will get paid for one long consultation every few weeks when I see her face-to-face,’ she said.
 
‘So, I’m vastly underpaid for her but she’s an old patient of mine and I know her care very well, and so I’m doing it.’
 
The Key Issues Paper highlights the need for residents to an absolute right to visitors in all situations, and enforceable rights of older people ‘to address the current power imbalance’.
 
It also recommends the establishment of an independent complaints system and strong regulations and penalties for those found guilty of not upholding the rights of older people.
 
The paper says this could be done through a Complaints Commissioner having direct independent statutory authority and functions, and a new complaints framework to be included in the Act.
 
It likewise calls for changes to ensure equitable and timely access to aged care services, guaranteed within 30 days of an application, with some patients currently waiting more than a year for Commonwealth Home Support Services (CHSP).
 
‘Sadly, some people have died while waiting for services in their local area to help them,’ the paper said.
 
The coalition also wants more action to support the diverse needs of older Australians, especially those with dementia and their carers.
 
Professor Pond backed these calls but said there are also a lot of grey areas, despite substantial overlap between GPs and aged care providers.
 
‘Unfortunately, fewer GPs are taking on residential aged care, and that’s because of the complex new rules around what we can prescribe,’ she said.
 
‘And it’s an environment where there’s more regulation, and that’s not a bad thing necessarily and it is desperately needed in many cases, but it just makes it a bit anxiety provoking for us.’
 
One thing Professor Pond would like to see, is greater communication between aged care service providers and GPs.
 
‘Sometimes we don’t even know what patients are allowed to have or what their assessment was,’ she said.
 
Ultimately, Associate Professor Pond agrees that the aged care sector is in need of major reform, saying it will not only benefit patients, but also GPs and the healthcare system.
 
‘Aged care has been grossly underfunded and under-resourced … and government needs to put plans into place to try and improve that situation,’ she said.
 
‘For patients and their families, it’s such a relief when they get this care they need, it is amazing.
 
‘It’s a cost saving to government and the Australian community, and patients are much, much happier at home.’
 
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