Actuary Richard Cumpston crunched the numbers on resident surveys conducted by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission at 1844 homes, and found that those in not-for-profit centres were about 17 per cent likelier to give a positive answer when asked about their experience, The Age reports.
Those living in regional aged care centres were about 36 per cent happier than those in cities, while those in large facilities were 34 per cent unhappier than those in smaller ones, Dr Cumpston said in a submission to the federal government’s aged care royal commission, seen by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Dr Cumpston, 78, obtained the raw data through freedom of information and is self-funding the research along with two colleagues who share his concerns about the aged care sector.
“We decided we wanted the aged care system to be in good shape before we needed it,” he said.
Dr Cumpston analysed the past 10 years of non-compliance notices and the past 16 years of sanctions and found for-profit providers had non-compliance risks about 1.70 times those of not-for-profit providers and sanction risks about 2.78 times.
He said the difference could be due to a combination of the profit motive and a lack of regulatory oversight, calling for automated processes to detect “red flags” that may indicate a poor standard of care.
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Aged care residents reveal which centres are the worst to live in (The Age)
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