The aged care royal commissioners say aged care services are underfunded, mostly poorly managed and all too often unsafe and seemingly uncaring, news.com.au reports.
They want urgent action to provide more support to allow older Australians to remain in their homes, address the overuse of chemical restraints in aged care and stop younger people with disabilities being stuck in aged care.
The commission’s interim report released last week found the system fails to meet the needs of older, and often very vulnerable, people.
The commissioners said the system does not deliver uniformly safe and quality care for older people, and is unkind and uncaring towards them.
“It is a shocking tale of neglect,” commissioners Richard Tracey – who died recently – and Lynelle Briggs wrote.
The system is woefully inadequate, they said.
“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.”
The commissioners said short-term solutions at best temporarily stave off the worst problems and, at worst, produce another set of unintended outcomes requiring further inquiries and reviews and further injections of public funds, without addressing the underlying causal factors.
“These limited interventions are not enough to deliver an aged care system that meets the needs of older people.”
FULL STORY
Royal commission draft report finds aged care is a ‘shocking tale of neglect’ (news.com.au)
A shocking tale of neglect (Royal Commission into Aged Care)
Aged care royal commission interim report holds first clue to what comes after the horror (ABC News)
Royal Commissions Interim Report shows change is needed (Catholic Health Australia)
The aged care royal commission’s 3 areas of immediate action are worthy, but won’t fix a broken system (The Conversation)
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