Aged food bill $6 a day
Jails ‘spend more on meals than nursing homes’
PENNY pinching nursing homes are spending just $6 a day to feed elderly residents — less than jails spend on prisoners’ meals, research from a Gold Coast dietitian shows.
Aged-care homes reaped $1 billion in profits last year but a shocking new study reveals they spent $6.08, on average, to provide three meals a day for each resident.
Jails spent more money feeding prisoners, at an average cost of $8.25 per day, while older Australians living in their own homes averaged $17.25 a day on food and drink.
The Australian Medical Association yesterday said it was “disgraceful and appalling’’ that most pets eat more expensive food than many elderly people in aged care.
AMA president Michael Gannon said it was “wholly inadequate’’ to spend $6 on three meals a day.
“My children’s guinea pigs get fresh ingredients and more money spent on them than that,’’ he said. “It’s a national disgrace the way we treat our aged — it is desperately disappointing and greatly saddening.”
The research study, based on financial reports from 817 aged-care providers caring for 64,256 residents, is published in the latest Nutrition and Dietetics journal.
The study, written by Bond University dietitian Cherie Hugo and the Stewart Brown Accountancy Firm, says that half the residents of aged-care homes suffer malnutrition.
It found that nursing homes cut spending on food by 30 cents per resident last year.
“On a per resident basis, (nursing homes) are currently spending nearly 1.4 times less than the current food budget for prisoners and nearly three times less than the Australian average of older adults living in the community,’’ the study says.
Leading Aged Services Australia, representing nursing homes, yesterday said that federal government rules required nursing homes to “ensure meal preferences, nutritional needs and special requirements of residents are met’’.
Productivity Commission data shows that taxpayers spent an average of $61,299 per resident in aged care last year.