Login
‘We would not accept it in any other setting’: Lawyers call for more transparency in aged care centres
Although welcoming the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety report into performative issues in centres, the Australian Lawyers Alliance has requested that the information be made public for consumers to access and make informed decisions.
Naomi Neilson
New analysis from the royal commission has shown that government-run centres have outperformed not-for-profit (NFP) and for-profit centres on many of its safety measures in unannounced evaluations. Although welcoming the first-released figures, Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) said there is now a chance to do more for consumers.
The research found that government-run facilities showed the best average results for 31 of the 44 indicators. They were found to have more direct care staff minutes in each indicator for residents and more nursing minutes per resident per day.
A greater proportion of NFP and for-profits was found to have issues during a number of unannounced visits from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Seven per cent of visits to for-profits resulted in serious risk decisions, compared with 5 per cent in NFP centres and 4 per cent in government-run facilities.
Almost 20 per cent of for-profit facilities also failed to comply with minimum standards, compared with 16 per cent of NFPs and 13 per cent of government-run facilities.
The ALA said the research report has proved it possible to access data that might help consumers make informed decisions. Ms Henry said to make it useful for families, the data should be made publicly available and narrowed down to individual facilities other than the current process of grouping them into government, NFP and for-profit.
Ms Henry said families choosing a childcare facility can easily check data online about their local centres to determine whether they have exceeded or failed to meet standard quality expectations. In both the UK and US, this type of quality information about aged-care facilities is available online with a simple postcode search, she added.
“Similar publicly available information about the performance of aged care facilities for Australia will help to support consumer choice and, importantly, to motivate aged care facilities to improve,” Ms Henry said.
Ms Henry noted that the report showed aged-care facilities run by the state and NFPs performed better across the indicators than for-profit organisations.
“The privatisation of the aged care sector in 1997 has not worked,” she said, adding it is a system “that was designed by providers for providers”.
“We agree with the recommendation that it’s time for a new Aged Care Act that embeds quality indicators and better regulation of the sector’s performance,” she said.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
