Cash crucial to aged care

Providers defended after failures revealed

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 THERE are hard conversations that are being avoided about aged care, says the head of the peak body for non-profit aged care providers.

Yesterday, the Mercury revealed there were eight Tasmanian age care services which had failed to meet all 44 accreditation standards in audits by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission in 2018-19.

Failures varied, and included issues such as not meeting nutrition and hydration requirements of residents, wound management treatments not being provided according to treatment plans, and an inability to demonstrate all care recipients were as free as possible from pain.

Aged and Community Services Australia said the way to improve aged care across the board in the state was better planning for our ageing population across government, individuals and providers.

“Providers own up to failures when they occur and are working hard to meet new quality standards,” said chief executive Patricia Sparrow.

“We exist to provide the best possible care and that’s why we are asking the entire community to get involved in planning for our ageing population and their own ageing earlier.

“There are some hard conversations that are still being avoided. The big improvements we are working towards in aged care at the moment won’t be fully realised unless we see a commensurate response on funding and workforce investment for the sector.”

Ms Sparrow said some of the ACQSC quality standards were new and while they were “important and necessary”, improving aged care would require more than new rules.

“Absolutely critical will be new funding solutions and large-scale community education about ageing and aged care,” she said.

“There is actually a lot of extraordinary care in Tasmania.

“Just recently we celebrated the ACSA awards and celebrating some of the most inspiring and hardworking professionals, volunteers and organisations in our sector.”