An interim report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has found the nation's aged care system to be a "shocking tale of neglect".
Key points:
- Commissioners Richard Tracey and Lynelle Briggs said aged-care services lacking in training and featured substandard care
- The 10-month inquiry followed a series of scandals which revealed neglect, abuse and overdosing of patients
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the inquiry following a string of abuse and neglect cases in nursing homes nationally.
After a 10-month inquiry, the report said the system failed to meet the needs of elderly people, often neglected them and was "unkind and uncaring".
Commissioners Richard Tracey and Lynell Briggs said the aged care industry was "a sad and shocking system that diminishes Australia as a nation" and needed to be changed.
The inquiry, which began in February, investigated aged-care housing, in-home care and care for young people with disabilities living in a residential aged-care environment.
The Commission found service shortfalls, serious substandard and unsafe care and an "underpaid, undervalued and insufficiently trained" staffing.
It identified three areas, which it said, could be acted upon immediately: more home-care packages for those on the waiting list, a reduction in the "over-reliance" on chemical restraints and stemming the intake of young people with disabilities into aged-care home.
The use of chemical restraints is one of the areas most strongly condemned.
The Commission called for tighter regulations on the controversial practice to subdue patients, describing its use as "inhumane, abusive and unjustified".
Among the findings, it also summarised the aged-care system was based around "transactions" rather than care.
It also found the voices of those receiving care were note listened to and the workforce was "under pressure" and lacked key skills.
The My Aged Care website and call centre was a costly failure which did not adequately provide information on care or how to access it, the Commission said.
Elsewhere, it described the provision of care as a "lottery" with waiting times of up to 12 months or more, with people dying on the wait list.
The final report will be handed to the Governor-General in November 2020.
'Shocked us all'
In response to the findings, Minister for Aged Care Richard Colbeck said he had been shocked by the extent of the findings and said it had put the Government "on notice".
He said a focus would continue on home-care packages to aid those on waiting lists, and that $2.2 billion of funding had been allocated since the last budget, which would increase the number of packages from 120,000 to 170,000.
The Government would also continue to assess the use of restraints, following regulations which came into force on July 1, and address the issue of young people with disabilities in care.
"One of the really important things that the royal commission has done is to give people a voice," Mr Colbeck said.
"The Prime Minister warned us that we would hear some bad stories — what shocked us all has been the extent of that."
The head of the Health Law and Ageing Research Unit at Monash University, Professor Joseph Ibrahim, said the Government's response brought into question why action had not been taken previously.
He said there had been no indication of what models of care should be delivered and there was no accountability in the Government's existing $18 billion spending on aged care.
"There is just no transparency and no one has been accountable, and that is because the residents don't have a voice and still don't have a voice," he said.
"This royal commission is the first time that older Australians in residential aged care have someone with strong advocacy skills that is standing up for them."
Aged and Community Services (ACSA), the body for non-profit aged-care providers, welcomed the report but said financing and staffing solutions needed to follow.
ACSA chief executive Patricia Sparrow said the report had exposed significant problems.
"Now we hope it will investigate specific care models and set the standard of what is required to fix them and ensure older Australians get the care they deserve," she said.
Number of scandals
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the inquiry last September following a string of disturbing cases involving abuse and neglect in nursing homes across the country.
One of the key scandals to emerge in recent years surrounded the Oakden aged-care mental health facility in Adelaide, which closed in September 2017 after reports emerged that patients had been overdosed, inappropriately restrained and the facility was under-resourced.
It followed an ABC story in January 2017 about an elderly man, Bob Spriggs, who was given 10 times the amount of his prescribed medication and had unexplained bruises while a resident at Oakden.
A subsequent ICAC report into the nursing home was hugely critical of five public sector officials and the health authority that oversaw the facility.
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