ACSA deeply concerned by ABC reports on aged care funding
Date:
Mon, 20/08/2012
Spokesperson:
Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA)
Aged and Community Services Australia, the peak body for mission-based aged care providers, wishes to express its deep concern regarding the reporting of aged care funding on the ABC’s PM and 7.30 programs last night.
“The vast majority of our aged care providers are responsible and ethical in the way they run their aged care services, which in the mission-based sector look after those most disadvantaged in Australia. Their residents include the homeless, Indigenous people, pensioners and those living in remote and rural Australia, where services are smaller and more costly to deliver,” Adj Prof John Kelly ACSA CEO said.
“They provide the majority of aged care services in Australia and many of them just scrape by with the funding they receive. They are required to match funding to care needs in order to provide a decent standard of care for those they look after, and the Government has a strong validation system in place to ensure these claims are made correctly.”
According to The Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act 2010-11, the average Government care subsidy for a resident in a nursing home is just $128 a day to provide personal and nursing care which includes assistance with dressing, eating, toileting, bathing and moving around, and, allied health services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, recreational therapy and podiatry.
Governments provide about $1000 per day to look after someone in a hospital. (AIHW, 2012.)
“We have been calling on the Government as a priority to undertake an independent cost of care study to once and for all determine how much it actually costs to deliver care services in different homes and locations a across Australia – including rural and remote,” Prof Kelly said.
In the meantime, ACSA is closely monitoring aged care services to examine the impact of the changes to the Aged Care Funding Instrument recently announced by the Department of Health and Ageing on aged care providers.
ACSA is the national peak body representing mission-based and residential and community aged care organisations providing care, services and accommodation for older people, people with a disability and their carers. They are often the only providers of care services in regional and remote areas and also work with the most disadvantaged in our community.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Adj Prof John Kelly, ACSA CEO: 0419 445 238
Heather Witham, Government Relations Advisor: 0437 911 276
