On Saturday 17th February, nurses and concerned community members participated in a rally in South Australia to highlight conditions affecting the aged care workforce. The rally, organised by the Aged Care Reform Team, was held on the steps of Parliament House in Adelaide and aimed to campaign for reforms which will provide nursing home residents with better care through mandatory staffing ratios.
Community members included the families of residents in nursing homes who are concerned at the level of avoidable deaths, they joined aged care nurses in calling for minimum staff to patient ratios.
According to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), chronic understaffing in nursing homes has seen a 400 percent increase over the past 13 years in preventable deaths among the elderly from health issues such as falls and choking. The ANMF also states that presently residents each receive less than three hours of care per day when evidence shows they should receive almost one and half hours more than that.
ANMF South Australia branch used the rally to highlight chronic understaffing at aged care facilities and requested state politicians lobby the federal government to change commonwealth aged care laws. Some of the politicians in attendance at the rally indicated they would support increased ratios and better support for existing aged care staff. Additionally the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have set up an online campaign for laws to be introduced which will bring aged care into line with childcare which has strict staff ratios.
Aged Care Watchdog Found Lacking
Last week the Australian Government announced that the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, an organisation which conducts quality assurance audits of aged care service, would be shut down and replaced following its failure to detect and act upon cases of inadequate care. Referred to as the aged care ‘watchdog’, the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency oversees services provided in residential aged care services, services in community settings, and aged care services which provide care in a patient’s own home. It is responsible for accrediting government subsidised aged care homes, and provides compliance monitoring, information and training to providers.
A significant contributing factor to the decision to shut down the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency was a report undertaken on Oakden, an aged mental health facility in South Australia. The Oakden review took 12 weeks and the report conclusion was that the facility should close. Questions were raised as to why an audit by the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency a year ago allowed the service to continue operating despite concerns going back several years of high risk of severe injury or death due to understaffing at the facility.
The Framework for a new auditing watchdog is still being discussed. Additionally a national inquiry into aged-care homes throughout Australia has been launched and is now accepting submissions.