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.
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.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s Interim Report has found the aged care system fails to meet the needs of its older, vulnerable, citizens.
It does not deliver uniformly safe and quality care, is unkind and uncaring towards older people and, in too many instances, it neglects them.
Commissioners Richard Tracey AM, RFD, QC and Lynelle Briggs’s AO investigation into Australia’s aged care system led them to describe the aged care system as a shocking tale of neglect. The neglect that we have found in this Royal Commission, to date, is far from the best that can be done. Rather, it is a sad and shocking system that diminishes Australia as a nation.
Entitled Neglect, the Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which was tabled in the Australian Parliament today, found that a fundamental overhaul of the design, objectives, regulation and funding of aged care in Australia is required. The Interim Report sets out the extent of the failure of Australia’s aged care services and what the Royal Commission has learned to date.
Commissioners describe the many problems that older people and their families have in trying to get access to aged care services, service shortfalls, the dispiriting nature of residential care, serious substandard care and unsafe practice, an underpaid, undervalued and insufficiently trained workforce, and isolation of young people with disabilities.
Commissioners identified three areas where immediate action can be taken:
to provide more Home Care Packages to reduce the waiting list for higher level care at home
to respond to the significant over-reliance on chemical restraint in aged care, including through the seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement
to stop the flow of younger people with a disability going into aged care, and speed up the process of getting out those young people who are already in aged care.
The Interim Report is in three volumes and is now available to read on the Royal Commission’s website along with an extract from the foreword, ‘A Shocking Tale of Neglect’.
It covers much, but not all, of the work of the Royal Commission through to September 2019. Most of the Royal Commission’s work on quality and safety considerations will be in the Final Report. The Interim Report explains that the aged care system needs fundamental reform and redesign. It identifies systemic problems in aged care with a system that:
is designed around transactions, not relationships or care
minimises the voices of people receiving care and their loved ones
is hard to navigate and does not provide information people need to make informed choices about their care
relies on a regulatory model that does not provide transparency or an incentive to improve, and
has a workforce that is under pressure and under-appreciated and that lacks key skills.
About the Interim Report
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s Interim Report lays the foundations for the fundamental reform and redesign of Australia’s aged care system.
The Interim Report, entitled Neglect, covers much, but not all, of the work of Commissioners Richard Tracey AM, RFD, QC and Lynelle Briggs AO through to September 2019. It has found that the aged care system fails to meet the needs of our older citizens in the delivery of safe and quality care.
Neglect sets out what we have learned to date, draws some preliminary conclusions and outlines key areas for our work over the next 12 months.
It is clear that a fundamental overhaul of the design, objectives, regulation and funding of aged care in Australia is required – not merely patching up. The Royal Commission is committed to systemic reform. This will be the central purpose of the Final Report and it also informs the Commissioners’ approach to the Interim Report. The breadth and complexity of this task is great.
A multitude of inquiries and reviews into the aged care sector since 1997 has had little impact as successive governments have failed to act on most of their recommendations.
The Final Report will recommend comprehensive reform and major transformation of the aged care system in Australia. We will chart a new direction for the sector, bringing a clear sense of purpose and of quality, and a renewed focus on compassion and kindness.
The Final Report will be handed to the Governor-General on 12 November 2020. Read more about the report here.