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MINISTER FOR Ageing Justine Elliot came under fire just before Christmas 2008 for her announcement on the state of the country’s nursing homes for the last financial year.
Minister Elliot said that Australia’s nursing homes provide ‘world class care’, with only ‘a small group – 46 nursing homes – that had failed to meet 44 accreditation standard outcomes under the Aged Care Act' (Media Release 26 November 2008).
What the Minister failed to mention was that there were 46 homes found non-compliant (that is, failing aged care standards) on 30 June 2008 – the last day of the financial year.
In reality, 199 homes were found non-compliant over the calendar year.
Minister Elliot acknowledged this after she was questioned by media.
Under law, the Minister for Ageing is required to give a report on nursing homes and their standards of care each financial year.
Surely the report should canvass the whole year – not just its final day!
CPSA questions the Government’s commitment to ‘openness’ and ‘transparency’ in the aged care sector, when antics such as this are taking place.
But wait, there’s more.
The Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency, (the industry watchdog) only used the 46 figure in its annual report in order to meet its performance targets.
So even the number one watchdog of nursing homes seems to fudge figures to make Australian nursing homes appear to be ‘world class’.
Assessment of quality in nursing homes has some serious flaws too.
For instance, homes are allowed to choose who carries out their assessment of standards.
A five day course is the only formal training needed to become an assessor.
Whilst many assessors out there are highly qualified in the aged care field, it is certainly not a requirement.
It seems that monitoring of aged care is not being taken seriously, and these realities of the industry shed some light on why awful things take place even in nursing homes that have passed accreditation checks with flying colours.
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