Industry applauds aged care reform plan

Updated

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Elderly welcome aged care changes (7pm TV News NSW)

Aged care providers, consumers and unions have warmly welcomed the Federal Government's $3.7 billion aged care reform package.

It is not everything the industry wanted but they say it is a substantial first step in giving older Australians the sort of care they want and making the system more sustainable.

The Government says the sweeping changes, which involve means testing of home care from July 2014, are about fairness.

Minister for Ageing Mark Butler told PM demand for aged care services is only going to increase.

"This is the beginning of building an aged care system for the 21st century, rather than trying to work with a system that was built in the 1980s," he said.

Ian Yates from the Council on the Ageing says everyone involved in the aged care industry has been waiting a long time for the Government's announcement.

"This is a very big beginning. This is the end of the process of pushing for major aged care reform," he said.

"Today we started that pathway of reform."

Mr Yates on Friday gave a media conference with the union United Voice and Martin Laverty from Catholic Health Australia, one of Australia's biggest providers of aged care services.

"In years past it would have been impossible to have unions, consumers groups and providers of aged care united through the National Aged Care Alliance in supporting the Government's plans for the future of quality aged care," Mr Laverty said.

"So we've said to the Government, you've made a solid first step in improving the opportunity for quality services to be delivered.

"What's now important is that the implementation council the Government has committed to is given real teeth so that as we work through the detail of these arrangements, genuine improvement in care outcomes for older Australians can be delivered."

The measures announced include:

Home care assistance packages will be doubled from $59,876 to almost $100,000.

Home care and residential care fees will be capped at $60,000 for a person's lifetime

$660 million to provide more residential aged care facilities

$268 million to fight what the Government calls the nation's dementia epidemic

$1.2 billion to help employers improve working conditions for staff

Rob Hankins from Aged and Community Services Australia is particularly pleased with the proposal for an Aged Care Financing Authority.

"Service providers will be able to put to the independent pricing authority what their accommodations are, what it cost to build the facility and what daily charge they will need to levy in order to cover that accommodation cost," he said.

"That means a service provider can actually recover the capital cost that it will take to build the new facilities. And I don't think that's unreasonable.

"I think that's good enough incentive in there for providers to start looking to acquire land and go through the development approval to start building new facilities."

One of the biggest elements of the package is $1.2 billion to improve the pay of aged care workers and to look at ways to make it a more attractive career option.

Lee Thomas from the Australian Nursing Federation says it is an enormous victory for aged care nurses and consumers.

"It's not uncommon for workers in the sector to earn between $168 and $300 a week less than workers working in public hospitals, for example, registered and enrolled nurses," she said.

"This money will go a significant way to redressing that massive wages gap. When we can actually start to attract more into the sector, my very clear wish is that we then move on things like mandated minimum staffing levels and skills mix.

"That's going to make a very significant difference."

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Aged care reform package revealed (7pm TV News NSW)

Dementia care

The Government says the overhaul is aimed a shifting the emphasis of the aged care system from residential to community care.

That will be particularly important for the increasing number of Australians expected to be diagnosed with dementia.

Almost $270 million of the Government's package is dedicated to improving services for dementia patients, speeding up diagnosis of the disease and to provide a financial supplement for additional care.

Alzheimer's Australia was campaigning for $500 million, but its chief Glenn Rees says they are not disappointed.

"I think this is the response we were looking for. It's positive in every way. It provides reassurance that the quality of dementia care is of concern to government; the package addresses that," he said.

"And even more important in some ways, this is the first time in Australian policy that dementia's been part of health so we have timely diagnosis recognised as an issue, we have acute care in hospitals recognised as an issue, and the Minister has promised to take dementia to health ministers to be agreed as a national health priority alongside cancer.

"I'm not sure we could ask for anything more at this stage."

Sense of relief

Mr Yates says that sense of relief is reflected across the whole aged care sector.

"Really we need to say that to have this kind of commitment in the current fiscal environment is really remarkable and we congratulate the Government," he said.

"We congratulate the Opposition for having signalled that it will support a strong package arising from the Productivity Commission."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will reserve judgment until he has been able to examine the detail of the package.

"But obviously if there is more means testing and more elements of user-pays in this system, lots of Australians are going to pay more," he said.

"Now I accept that the system is under strain. I absolutely accept that."

The Greens say the Government's announcement is encouraging and addresses many of the current problems in the sector.

Topics: aged-care, community-and-society, older-people, health, health-policy, social-policy, federal-government, australia

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