A Senate Inquiry into aged care service delivery, instigated by ACT Independent Senator David Pocock, has made a major recommendation to end “rationed” care in the aged care system following findings that over 200,000 older Australians were being left to wait for basic care.
Responding to growing community concern about co-contributions in the new aged care system, the inquiry has also recommended the Senate establish a new inquiry to examine the impacts of charging older Australians for essential supports, like assistance showering.
Independent ACT Senator David Pocock said the inquiry was vital in securing the additional 20,000 home care packages next month, but had also revealed other issues the Senate now wants to investigate.
“This inquiry was vital to generating the evidence needed to force the Government to come to the table on the additional 20,000 home packages that the community was calling for,” he said.
”However, in the course of the inquiry we discovered that the wait lists, which the Government was trying to keep quiet, were actually far worse than anyone was expecting, and that there is growing concern in the community over the Government’s plan to charge people for services, like assistance showering.
“The Committee has made some big recommendations, including moving away from the ‘rationed system’ we have where people have to wait for help until someone else passes away or moves into residential care.”
”Rationing care for older Australians isn’t what people across the country want, and while governments may argue it is about cost, we know that we all pick up the tab when people can’t get the help they need and end up in hospital or family members have to work part time or even quit their jobs to support their partner or ageing parents.”
”Senators were clearly frustrated by the Government’s attempts to hide the wait list numbers while saying they were releasing packages, when in reality they were just recycling packages while wait lists increased rapidly,” said Senator Pocock.
”I acknowledge that these are huge reforms and there will always be challenges, but we need to ensure the government of the day is honest about the problems, transparent with the data and open to working with experts, providers and the community to fix problems as they arise.”
The Committee made 11 recommendations, including the referral of two new Senate inquiries covering co-payments and the wind of the Commonwealth Home Support Program.
The Committee has also urged the Inspector-General of Aged Care to consider conducting an urgent inquiry into the single assessment system.
The Senate Inquiry report can be found here.
Senator Pocock’s additional comments to the report can be found here.