This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

The Morrison government will spend an extra $537m on aged care to address three priority areas identified by the scathing royal commission interim report: a massive shortage of home-care packages, overuse of chemical restraint, and removing younger people in aged care.

The majority of the package ($496.3m) will be spent on 10,000 home-care packages, with the rest spent on improving medication management to reduce use of chemical restraints ($25.5m), extra dementia training ($10m) and measures to speed up targets to remove younger people from aged care ($4.7m).

Scott Morrison told reporters on Monday the measures are an “initial response” but “there is more to be done and more will be done”, suggesting if the aged care royal commission proposes major sector-wide reform then “we’re up for that”.

Complaints about aged care double in four years, prompting calls for more funding Read more

He also noted the government is aware of “specific cases where the viability questions” arise and aged care providers are at risk of collapse.

The aged-care minister, Richard Colbeck, said the current method of funding aged care is not “fit for purpose” so the government is trialling a new model to pay providers “more on the basis of assessing the care needs of the individuals” to deal with the structural change of residents needing more care, imperilling providers’ viability.

In October the aged care royal commission delivered an interim report accusing the aged care system of being “unkind and uncaring”, with the waiting list of 120,000 Australians waiting for home-care packages just one measure of “a shocking tale of neglect”. Clearing the waiting list is estimated to cost $2.5bn.

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On Monday in a joint statement, Morrison, health minister Greg Hunt and Colbeck said the report was “clear … we can and must do better in providing improved support for our older Australians”.

“Like every Australian, we were appalled by the revelations of the interim report, however we will do everything we can to build an aged care system of the highest quality.”

The 10,000 extra home-care packages will be strongly weighted towards level 3 and level 4 packages, which provide a high level of care, and will start with 5,500 places rolled out from 1 December.

From 1 January, the government will “establish stronger safeguards and restrictions for the prescribing of repeat prescriptions of [the antipsychotic drug] risperidone”, the ministers said.

“The royal commission directed that restraint must only be used as a last resort, and amendments to regulations will make this clear.”

Under the new rules doctors will be required to apply for additional approval to prescribe risperidone beyond an initial 12-week period.

Aged care: Morrison government given advice on increasing care packages eight months ago Read more

The government will provide information for doctors prescribing antipsychotics and benzodiazepines in residential aged care, with “targeted letters” sent to high prescribers.

The interim report recommended the government commit that no more younger people should enter aged care by 2022 and all younger people in care should be out by 2025, subject to limited exemptions.

Under new targets to address younger people with disabilities in aged care, the government committed that no people under the age of 65 will enter residential aged care by 2022, none under the age of 45 will live in residential aged care by 2022; and none under the age of 65 will in residential aged care by 2025.

The $4.7m program will include establishment of a joint agency taskforce between the departments of health, social services and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and a specialist team in the NDIA to prevent young people with a disability who are eligible for the disability insurance scheme from entering aged care.

Labor’s aged care spokeswoman, Julie Collins, described the government response as “inadequate” and just a “drop in the ocean” of what is required to counter the neglect identified by the interim report.

She cited the fact that 16,000 older Australians died in just one year while waiting for home care and many wait more than two years for the care they have been approved for.

Labor has pressed the Coalition to increase spending on aged care, warning that for every week that the government delayed action, 300 older Australians die without their home care package.

Complaints about aged-care providers have doubled in the past four years, from 3,936 in 2015-16 to 7,828 in 2019.

Earlier in November, the government services minister, Stuart Robert, told the National Press Club that between March 2017 and June 2019 the number of younger people in residential aged care had decreased by 11%, from 6,287 to 5,606.

Robert said that removing all younger people from aged care “requires a huge number of houses to be built, providers to be identified and to be able to provide the support so lots of things have to work together”.