Showing posts with label aged care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aged care. Show all posts

Thursday 22 June 2023

GCB Constructions not out of the woods yet? Still no completion date for Uniting's seniors living development in Yamba.

 

Artist's rendition of planned Uniting retirement/seniors living complex
IMAGE: CVC/Clarence Valley Independent, 30 October 2019












In 2020 the Uniting Church announced the extension of its “Caroona” aged care residential facility in Yamba to include a co-located complex of 34 villas and 50 one, two and three-bedroom apartments with a recreational area.


The building contractor chosen GCB Constructions Pty Ltd (located in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Lismore). Presumably because Uniting was satisfied with the previous 12 bed hostel build.


Work ceased on the complex sometime in early 2023 as GCB’s financial difficulties became apparent.


By beginning June GCB was facing facing multiple court actions from suppliers, including a wind-up action, however a spokesperson stated “GCB Constructions maintains a solvent position despite cashflow restraints.” “... we expect to have the majority of our teams back on site over the next week or so”.


Nevertheless, it does not appear that GCB Constructions has returned to the Yamba site, as the yet to be fully completed build remains silent and absent of noticeable activity.


On 21 June the Clarence Valley Independent described the situation as Uniting Yamba Road development in limbo with an accompanying photograph of the 50 apartment section of this development.


IMAGE: Clarence Valley Independent, 21 June 2023.
Photo Rodney Stevens


 


Thursday 15 June 2023

RESIDENTIAL AGED CARE IN AUSTRALIA: is push is about to meet shove over the next four years?

 

Yes, an Australia-wide review of the residential aged care system was long overdue given the ongoing train wreck which started in the Howard Government era and continued through to the Morrison Government era and hasn’t yet come to a complete halt. 


Although the Albanese Government's 20 per cent increase ($3.9 billion) in federal government funding for residential aged care and home care in 2022-23 was a promising sign. As was the $23 billion over the 4 years from 2022-23 to improve aged care infrastructure and services that provide support to older Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people and to older individuals from diverse communities and regional areas.


Although the fact remains that between 2012 to 2022 bed numbers in residential aged care facilities were effectively being privatised and creating risk with:

  • government managed beds down from 10,825 to 8,170;

  • Not-for profit managed beds up from 107,410 to 120,053;

  • privately managed beds up from 66,335 to 91,658; and

  • the number of residential aged care providers falling to just 811 business entities by 2022.


Yes, the ageing population is also growing. By June 2022 the number of people 65 years of age and older composed 17 per cent of the total population at an est. 3.3 million individuals and, there were 180,750 older people in permanent residential aged care58 per cent of those being aged 85 years to 100+ yearsThese individuals were accommodated across 219,965 permanent residential aged care places as of 30 June.


Should we panic at these numbers? No, not quite yet.


Admissions to permanent residential aged care across Australia between July 2020 to June 2021 totalled 67,146 older people.


In the same financial year these 67,146 people entered residential care and a total of 2,823 exited due to death. By 2025 the majority of those admitted in 2020-21 will have been discharged from permanent residential aged care by death, given that for at least half of all permanent care residents appear to have a length of stay after admission of between 24 to 48 months.


In fact, of the 180,750 older people in permanent residential aged care in June 2022, it is possible that up to 95,797 will have been recorded as discharged by death before 2027.


However, by 2027 Australia’s population 65 years of age and older will be est. 5.2 million or est. 18% of a total national population which might have reached 29.2 million persons by then, according to projection scenarios by the  Australian Dept. of Health & Aged Care and Australian Bureau of Statistics. Out of that older population pool as many as 300,000 might by then require some form of residential aged care (permanent or respite) which potentially creates a bed shortfall risk.


That bed shortfall combined with the growing amount of federal funding required to keep government & not-for-profit operators afloat and satisfy the demands of a profit-driven private sector means that decisions have to be made within this present election cycle on residential aged care costs and infrastructure.


Whatever the Albanese Government decides will probably satisfy very few — because that is the nature of the collective political beasts roaming the Arena at present, as well as the mood of the national electorate watching this brutal Roman Circus.


Sunday 7 May 2023

Albanese Government will implement in full the Fair Work Commission 15% rise in wages for est. 250,000 nurses & direct care workers in aged care sector

 


The Saturday Paper, Post, daily news email, 4 May 2023:



A centrepiece of next week’s budget will be a $11.3bn commitment to raise aged care workers pay by 15%.


What we know:


  • During the election, Labor promised to provide a wage increase to aged care workers, and the Fair Work Commission last year decided this should be 15% (SMH).


  • After attempting to stagger this increase over two years, Aged Care Minister Anika Wells has confirmed it will be implemented in full from July at a cost of $11.3bn over four years.


  • Wells described the pay boost as “historic” and said it would help to address gender pay inequality.


  • For a registered nurse the increase will equate to almost $200 a week more, with their annual wage growing to more than $78,000.


  • Personal care staff will receive an extra $7300 a year, or $141 a week.


  • The federal government also hopes the pay increase will attract workers to the sector and help to meet its election promise of having nurses in aged care homes 24-7.


  • Recent reports found that this policy could lead to a shortfall of about 25,000 workers in the next two years.


  • Aged care is now the government’s fifth biggest expense with costs jumping by $5bn to $26.9bn this financial year (The Conversation).


  • The sector has drawn much criticism, with staff overworked, underpaid and poorly equipped (The Saturday Paper).


Saturday 14 May 2022

Tweet of the Week


 


 

Wednesday 2 March 2022

Australian Society 2022: Are Australia's frail aged ever going to receive the care, dignity and respect that is their right?


A dinner of chicken nuggets and chips at an aged care home
IMAGE: The Age, 1 March 2022]
 


The federal government does not know how much of almost half-a-billion dollars it paid aged care providers to improve nutrition was spent on meals, as families report residents are still being served “disgusting” food. The $10 basic daily supplement was a key part of the government’s response to the Aged Care Royal Commission final report a year ago. It has so far handed over more than $460 million to about 2700 homes, without an effective system to ensure it is spent on food....The royal commission heard evidence that two-thirds of aged care residents were malnourished and recommended funding earmarked for food be lifted by $10 a day for each resident. [The Age, 1 March 2022]


Even though residential aged care has been increasing privatised for the last twenty-five years - until commercial delivery of residential aged care dominates what is now an industry - the Australian Government remains the primary funder and regulator of the aged care system. Thus it has many avenues to influence the quality of aged care.


The aged care sector has a troubled history and many older people fear being admitted to nursing homes once they become frail or chronically ill. There have been 18 inquiries and reviews of aged care in Australia since 1997.


The most recent investigation, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was established on 8 October 2018 and The Honourable Tony Pagone QC and Ms Lynelle Briggs AO were appointed Royal Commissioners.


The Commissioners' eight volume Final Report titled “Care, Dignity and Respect” was handed down on 26 February 2021 and made 148 detailed recommendations.


In May 2021 the Morrison Government on paper accepted roughly half the recommendations and, rejected outright or offered up a workaround of the other half.


Thus far it appears that only 16 aspects of those 148 Royal Commission recommendations have been acted upon by federal government and, at least one in a way which might not have been expected by the Commissioners.


One of the recommendations which was not readily agreed to and is yet to be acted on is:

Recommendation 87: Employment status and related labour standards as enforceable standards.

1. By 1 January 2022, the Australian Government should require as an ongoing condition of holding an approval to provide aged care services that

a. approved providers: have policies and procedures that preference the direct employment of workers engaged to provide personal care and nursing services on their behalf

b. where personal care or nursing work is contracted to another entity, that entity has policies and procedures that preference direct employment of workers for work performed under that contract.

2. From 1 January 2022, quality reviews conducted by the Quality Regulator must include assessing compliance with those policies and procedures and record the extent of use of independent contractors.


Almost two months past the Royal Commission deadline to demonstrate an increase in direct employment of those providing personal care and nursing care to aged care facility residents, the Australian Treasurer & Liberal MP for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg announces that Productivity Commission would undertake a study of employment models in aged care, and the effects that policies and procedures to preference the direct employment of aged care workers would have on the sector.


Thus kicking ensuring provision of adequate personal and nursing care for aged care residents, further down the road and past the May 2022 federal general election.


One might suspect from the wording of the directive to the Productivity Commission, that Mr. Frydenberg is less concerned about how nursing home staff are employed and more concerned that corporate owners of nursing homes retain their ability to pay low wages to much of their workforce.


Australian Productivity Commission, retrieved 1 March 2022:


Aged Care Employment


Terms of reference


I, the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP, Treasurer, pursuant to Parts 2 and 4 of the Productivity Commission Act 1998, hereby request that the Productivity Commission (the Commission) undertake a Study to examine:


  • employment models in aged care, and the effects that policies and procedures to preference the direct employment of aged care workers would have on the sector.


Background


The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (the Royal Commission) was established on 8 October 2018 and the Final Report: Care, Dignity and Respect was released on 1 March 2021.


The Australian aged care system provides subsidised care and support to older people. It is a large and complex system that includes a range of programs and policies. In response to the Royal Commission there will be significant reform to the aged care system. These reforms will be underpinned by a new Aged Care Act, which is intended to commence from 1 July 2023, subject to parliamentary processes.


The Royal Commission noted a trend in recent years has been the increased use of ‘independent contractors’ in aged care.


The Royal Commission’s Final Report noted numerous submissions over the course of the Royal Commission inquiry had made the claim that quality care was more likely to be delivered by direct employees than by contractors. However, some stakeholders consider these subcontracting models deliver better consumer choice and flexibility, which is also desired by the sector.


Scope of the study


The Commission will undertake a study to examine employment models in aged care, and the effects that policies and procedures to preference the direct employment of aged care workers would have on the sector.


When examining these issues, the Commission should also consider recommendation 87, as well as submissions and evidence provided to, the Royal Commission.


In undertaking this Study, the Commission should:


  • examine the extent of the aged care personal care and nursing workforce who are not directly employed by aged care providers

  • taking into account the wide scope of duties within the aged care sector, ranging from low level care such as grocery shopping and gardening through to high level personal and medical care, examine how different employment arrangements might impact on:

  • quality of care
  • consumer choice
  • job creation and availability of workforce
  • employment conditions for the workforce
  • worker preferences
  • flexible and innovative models of care
  • accountability of aged care providers for care delivered on their behalf
  • costs of providing care
  • viability of aged care providers
  • explore any preconditions in personal care and nursing workforce supply that would be required prior to any potential policies and procedures to preference direct employment

  • consider whether new policies and procedures would impact other care sectors, such as disability and childcare.

The Commission should support analysis with modelling using quantitative and qualitative data.


Process


The Commission should undertake broad consultation with consumers, the aged care workforce, unions and aged care providers.


The Commission could release a draft report in June 2022, and provide a final report to the Australian Government in September 2022.


The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP

Treasurer


[Received 23 February 2022]


Friday 11 June 2021

ABBOTT-TURNBULL-MORRISON GOVERNMENT PRIVATISED AGE CARE STATE OF PLAY 2021: between 1 April and 12 May 2021 there were 1,827 serious incidents across Australia in residential aged care facilities involving everything from unreasonable use of force, inappropriate chemical restraint, sexual assault, psychological abuse, neglect, financial coercion, though to unexpected death

 

The saddest statistical tables in Australia today - remembering it took only 42 days for these serious Priority 1 examples of violence, neglect and abuse in residential aged care to accumulate.


Those 1,827 Priority 1 incidents were reported by a total of 392 residential aged care providers. That is est. 46 per cent of all residential aged care providers operating as of 30 June 2020.


Only 16 of the reportable notifications were investigated and, there is no guarantee that Priority 1 incidents are not being under-reported across the residential aged care industry - nor it seems is there any way of reliably checking.



Click table to enlarge



Tables taken from Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS): insight reportMay 2021.


Do you have a friend or relative living in residential aged care? Perhaps next time you visit, consider taking note of the physical condition of your friend or relative as well as the state of their bed linen, room and adequacy of any meal.


If you have concerns report them by phone, in writing or online. 

See: https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/making-complaint


Wednesday 2 June 2021

Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook continues his war on the poor and vulnerable in a markedly callous manner

 

Scott Morrison's war on the poor and vulnerable appears to have been extended to include the elderly in residential care..... 


News.com.au, 31 May 2021:


The Federal Government quietly overturned a rule in November that private residential aged care staff were not to work at multiple sites, it has been revealed. 


News broke on Monday that a staff member at the Arcare Maidstone aged care facility had become infected with Covid-19 after working at Blue Cross aged care in Sunshine.


Three new locally acquired cases were today linked to private aged care, including the son of a worker who previously tested positive from Arcare Maidstone, the staff member who worked at the two facilities and a resident in her 90s from Arcare Maidstone.


Public aged care facilities in Victoria, managed by the Victorian Government, have rules in place banning staff from working at multiple sites.


But private aged care facilities in Victoria, managed by the Morrison Government, have allowed staff to work at more than one site.

[my yellow highlighting]


Wednesday 3 March 2021

Royal Commission finds "the extent of substandard care in Australia’s aged care system is deeply concerning and unacceptable by any measure"

 

We consider that the extent of substandard care in Australia’s aged care system is deeply concerning and unacceptable by any measure. We also consider that it is very difficult to measure precisely the extent of substandard care, and that this must change. Australians have a right to know how their aged care system is performing; their government has a responsibility to design and operate a system that tells them; and aged care providers have a responsibility to monitor, improve and be transparent about the care they provide. The extent of substandard care in Australia’s aged care system reflects both poor quality on the part of some aged care providers and fundamental systemic flaws with the way the Australian aged care system is designed and governed. People receiving aged care deserve better. The Australian community is entitled to expect better.”  [Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, A Summary of the Final Report, p.73]


Given the three volume interim report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was titled “Neglect”, the publication of the Final Report was not going to contain good news concerning the piecemeal approach taken by the federal government to what is now a predominately privatised health care sector.


Privatisation of the aged care sector has literally made millionaires of many founders and directors of residential aged care businesses.


According to a May 2019 Tax Justice Network – Australia and

Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability & Research (CICTAR) reportTax Justice Network – Australia and Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability & Research (CICTAR) report, Australia’s six largest family-owned aged care companies make a up a significant and growing portion of the aged care sector and they received over $711 million in annual federal funding to operate 130 facilities, with almost 12,000 beds. This was in addition to fees received from residents. While several of the largest family-owned aged care companies, owned by some of Australia’s richest families, have complex corporate structures, intertwined with trusts, that appear specifically designed to avoid tax.


The aged care system offers care under three main types of government subsidized service: Commonwealth Home Support Programme, Home Care Packages, permanent residential care and short-term respite care.


None of these service types have met the goals assigned to them under government policy and, the distressing examples of abuse and neglect which led to the creation of this Royal Commission have not disappeared as media reports during 2020 revealed [source source source source].


Regardless of whether a residential aged care business was privately-owned, corporate-owned or a not-for profit belonging to a religious institution, too many times in 2020 their individual residential aged care facilities were cited for a failure in one of all 8 of the Aged Care Quality Standards including those of concerning “consumer dignity and choice” and “personal care and clinical care”.


The Royal Commission’s Final Report Executive Summary tells us that:


The Aged Care Financing Authority reported that in 2018–19, there were over 3000 providers of aged care services. This included 873 residential aged care providers, 928 home care providers (as at 30 June 2019) and 1458 Commonwealth Home Support Programme providers.


However, a worryingly small percentage of the workforce employed by these 3,000 aged care services hold suitable qualifications. Out of the est. 366,000 paid workers only est. 15% had nursing qualifications or were accredited enrolled nurses in 2016.


The Final Report Executive Summary also tells us that:


In 2019–20, the Australian Government’s expenditure on aged care programs administered by the Department of Health was $21.2 billion. Older people are required to contribute to the costs of their care and accommodation if they can afford to do so through co-payments and means tested fees. People receiving aged care services contributed $5.6 billion to the cost of their aged care in 2018–19.


The Parliamentary Budget Office has projected that, over the next decade, Australian Government spending on aged care will increase by 4.0% a year, after correcting for inflation. This increase will mean that aged care spending will be growing significantly faster than the rate of all Australian Government spending (2.7%). By 2030–31, aged care will account for 5.0% of all Australian Government expenditure compared to 4.2% in 2018–19.


With the current Morrison Government having displayed a penchant for whittling down funding and services for the poor and vulnerable in our society, one would be foolish to suppose that Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison would do no more than throw a financial sop at deficiencies in the aged care system.


On the heels of the Final Report, Morrison immediately committed to spend a paltry$452m on the sector and announced a further $189.9m in “temporary financial support” without a requirement that residential aged care providers spend it on increasing staff numbers and/or providing more qualified staffneeds identifed within a number of the 148 recommendations in the Final Report.


The full final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is at https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/final-report


The Final Report Executive Summary opens at https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/final-report-executive-summary


The preceding Interim Report is found at

https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/interim-report


Saturday 17 October 2020

Tweet of the Week

 


Friday 9 October 2020

Scott Morrison still denying responsibility for the elderly Australians in aged care who died of COVID-19

 

Snapshot of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a 7 October 2020 television
interview on the ABC program "7.30". Image: @OzLady0


This is a face Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison tries not to show to the general public - a narrowed, steely-eyed gaze with set lips - one of his 'if looks could kill' moments.


This is what brought forth that particular look......


ABC Television, 7.30 program, transcript, 7 October 2020:



LEIGH SALES: Prime Minister, I would like to spend quite a bit of time tonight talking about aged care. Three-quarters of the COVID-19 deaths have been in this country, in aged care facilities, that is 673 people.


Those facilities are the responsibility of the Federal Government. In the past, gastro and flu epidemics have ripped through aged care facilities. We knew from Newmarch House in April how horrific coronavirus in aged care could be.


How did the Federal Government fail so comprehensively to prevent this tragedy?


SCOTT MORRISON: Well, Leigh, first of all, on a couple of points. The Commonwealth Government put in $1.5 billion extra in support to deal with everything, from workforce support to PPE and training and equipment to assist the aged care sector as it dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.


Now what we saw in particular ...


LEIGH SALES: And there are still 673 people dead ...


SCOTT MORRISON: Leigh, if you could just let me finish, if you could just let me finish.


LEIGH SALES: As long as you address the question, I'm very happy for you to finish.


SCOTT MORRISON: Well, I am talking about what we have been doing to address the COVID pandemic in aged care. 


LEIGH SALES: I'm asking why you have failed?......


The full interview video can be accessed at:

Saturday 3 October 2020



Monday 28 September 2020

The dramatic increase in COVID-19 deaths in Australia’s aged care homes begs the ethics around our treatment of people in aged care, says a UNSW expert


MediaNet Release, 24 September 2020:

Treating our elderly people ethically and with transparency

UNSW’s Richard Hugman says it is time to stop treating elderly people as objects, as the Royal Commission into Aged Care and Safety continues.

The dramatic increase in COVID-19 deaths in Australia’s aged care homes begs the ethics around our treatment of people in aged care, says a UNSW expert. In less than four months, deaths from COVID-19 in aged care have increased from 28 to 580, at the time of writing.

UNSW Emeritus Professor Richard Hugman, a social worker who specialises in the aged care professions, says Australia’s service provision needs to treat older people as human beings rather than objects.

"To use a similar ethos in caring for human beings that you would use in producing physical things for sale, I think is an unfortunate way to think about the world,” the former professor of social work at UNSW Arts & Social Sciences, says.

"The way policies are framed around running these [places], it is as if they are running a factory. I understand good management techniques are transferable across settings, but you also need to understand the content of what you're managing.”

Causes of the COVID outbreaks in aged care

A range of factors have been blamed for the outbreak of COVID-19 in care facilities, including a lack of training in the use of Personal Protective Equipment and supplies available for care staff.

Melbourne’s aged care homes have been the worst hit, with all but five of the 115 aged care homes affected by the virus in Victoria. St Basil’s recording 44 deaths, Epping Gardens 36 deceased and Twin Parks Aged Care in Reservoir with 21.

In Sydney, Newmarch House recorded the state’s highest death toll in aged care with 19 cases, including two residents who had COVID-19 when they died from other causes. And the numbers are growing.

Newmarch and St Basil’s had alarming numbers because they decided not to transfer patients to hospital, Prof. Hugman says.

"I haven't seen the detail, but the question I would be asking is, ‘were those homes actually using established infectious disease control methods?’” he says.

The decision not to transfer patients is exacerbated by the fact that today there are very few qualified nurses in nursing homes, Prof. Hugman says.

"Some nursing homes don't even actually have a nurse on duty at all times. If they’re looking after 100 people and they’ve got one nurse on duty to supervise other people, then they might have somebody who has a certificate from TAFE administering drugs and medications.

"Whereas in a hospital, someone would actually have to be a qualified nurse to be doing that.”

Care staff working across multiple sites during the pandemic have also reportedly been a likely source of COVID-19 transmission. Prof. Hugman says staff have to work between homes just to earn enough to survive on.

"It's not just in Victoria, despite what the government says. These are all reflections of the broader ethics of the social value that is placed on [ageing] people, so that they seem to be less well cared for than they could be otherwise.”

Early findings from the Royal Commission’s interim report

The Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (RCACQS) is looking at better financing models, including regulation of aged care providers, in its latest hearings expected to run until September 22.

It comes after a survey by the University of Queensland for RCACQS estimated it would cost $621 million per year to improve the quality of all aged care homes to better standards. In its October 2019interim report, the RCACQS’ scathing review stated that aged care is a “shocking tale of neglect” in Australia that fails to meet the needs of our elderly people.

Australia’s aged care sector is “unkind and uncaring” towards older people, it does not deliver uniformly safe and quality care and often neglects them, according to the interim report.
Prof. Hugman says while the Royal Commission creates an opportunity for people to speak up, the real challenge lies in the government’s response and how it then permeates into the wider society.

A lack of transparency

Prof. Hugman says there is a lack of transparency in how government funding is spent by management in aged care facilities in comparison to community-based social services where monitoring is stringent.

He says claims by some aged care homes, particularly those from the for-profit sector, that they have to spend less on staff relative to residents in order to cover their costs just doesn’t stack up.

"And those claims about non-profitability do not explain how or why the [aged care] for-profit sector remains [in operation],” he says.

For-profit aged care homes have reported more cases of COVID-19 than facilities operating on a not-for-profit framework, heightening concerns about staff numbers, training and supplies.

Raising the social value of elderly people

The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre has since been set-up to coordinate efforts to stabilise any further COVID-19 outbreaks across the private and public aged care sectors, with an infection control officer now stationed in each facility.

And the Royal Commission is set to release its final report by 26 February 2021.

Prof. Hugman recommends the government respond to the Royal Commission by not only providing sufficient funding but by also ensuring older people are treated with dignity and care.

"[The government needs to] focus on improvements to the aged care sector that are not reflective of a sense that older people needing care are a burden on society,” Prof. Hugman says.

[Instead, they need to focus on the fact] that older people are part of society and that a good society is one that values all its members.”

Prof. Hugman also says there needs to be an emphasis placed on the expression of positive values about how to treat and view elderly people as human beings.

"Frankly, there are some places I've visited in the last few years, either because I've had friends or relatives who are living in them or I've gone to visit for professional reasons,” Prof. Hugman says.

And they’re places, “I wouldn't go anywhere near”.