Revelations that 6 out of 10 aged care homes are still falling short on their mandatory minutes of direct care and registered nurse targets are deeply concerning, COTA Australia says.
Data from the April - June 2024 quarter, released today, shows that despite increased funding, many aged care homes - including those in metropolitan areas where workforce issues are not as acute as they are in regional and rural areas - are still failing to meet their direct care targets.
Chief Executive of COTA Australia - the leading advocacy organisation for older people - Patricia Sparrow said aged care facilities have an urgent responsibility to improve the level of care being provided.
"Increasing the mandatory minutes of care provided to aged care residents was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care and a substantial piece of reform introduced by the Federal Government last year. The fact that too many older people are still not getting the mandated minutes of care is a real concern," Ms Sparrow said.
"Australians have a right to expect that if they or a loved one goes into aged care they'll be given the attention and quality care they need and deserve.
"Basic direct care isn't a 'nice to have', it's crucial and the absolute minimum we should expect for older Australians in aged care.
Ms Sparrow said it was especially concerning that compliance rates in for-profit aged care homes are significantly lower than those run by not-for-profit providers. Only 23% of 'for profit' providers met both their RN and total care minutes in the quarter to 30 June 2024.
"We shouldn't have a situation where aged care homes are making profits off government funding while falling short of their mandatory care targets.
"This data shows that far too many older people are going without the basic, mandated level of care they deserve. It's good to see the Federal Government making moves to address this. We welcome the release of provider and service level information so that older people and their families can see how their individual home is performing.
"COTA looks forward to being part of further discussions about how to increase the number of older Australians getting access to the minutes of care, and quality of care, they deserve and regulatory action being taken where providers are failing to meet the requirements."
From October 1, it is expected that aged care providers increase their care minutes to an average of 215 minutes per resident, per day, including at least 44 minutes of care provided by a registered nurse.
