Nursing homes have been slammed for their conditions and insufficiencies to protect the elderly by the Aged Care royal commission.
The Aged Care Royal Commission’s probe into COVID-19 found that major outbreaks in NSW weren’t clearly communicated to protect other states such as Victoria where 800 have died, 641 in aged care facilities or receiving in-home care.
The report has given six recommendations and the federal government will spend $40.6m to implement these.
Royal commissioners Tony Pagone and Lynelle Briggs found restrictions at facilities were having “tragic, irreparable and lasting effects” on the elderly which need to be addressed.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck accepted the recommendation that a specific plan was necessary but he refuted the conclusion’s commission that there was no plan for handling coronavirus in aged care facilities. “The plan has continued to be developed and evolved as we have learned more about the virus,” he said.
It was found that the national medical expert panel did not offer any written advice to aged care providers from 20 June to 4 August as cases in Victoria’s aged homes skyrocketed to more than 500. It was found that the federal government’s reports was “in some respects insufficient”.
“Confused and inconsistent messaging from providers, the Australian government, and state and territory governments emerged as themes,” the report read.
“All too often, providers, care recipients and their families, and health workers did not have an answer to the critical question: who is in charge?”
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Earlier this week, Health Secretary Brendan Murphy had said some Victorian aged care deaths could have been avoided had the aged care response centre been set up earlier.
The six key recommendations of the report:
1. The federal government should report to parliament before 1 December on the implementation of the recommendations.
2. The federal government should fund providers to ensure they can have enough staff to allow continued visits to residents by their families and friends. This should happen immediately.
3. Barriers to accessing mental health supports should be removed during the pandemic should be removed, with a Medicare Benefits Schedule to increase the provisions of allied health services.
4. A national aged care plan for COVID-19 should be created through national cabinet, with help from the aged care sector.
5. There should be one or more trained infection control officers at all aged care homes.
6. The infection control experts should be deployed into residential aged care homes to provide training, assist with outbreak management plans and help with outbreaks.
