In Australia, recent reforms in the aged care system have turned a minor crisis into a major one. Why thousands of seniors are now trapped in hospital beds, waiting for nursing home beds. Local hospital reports indicate that there has been a more than 25% rise in elderly patients in this situation in just the past three months. Today, now about 3,000 people are in this position. These shocking statistics underscore the desperate need for proven solutions. These changes to the government’s assessment system are having a distressing and disorienting impact on older Australians and their families.
The government’s move to allow private companies to handle part of the aged care assessment process has added another level of complexity. ABC Investigations’ Anne Connolly, long acclaimed for her deep-dive investigative reporting on social policy and aged care, pointed out the daunting obstacles that these reforms face. The Integrated Assessment Tool is an actuarial algorithm used to determine the extent of support elderly people should receive. More recently, it has come under fire for being ineffective and not transparent.
Growing Waitlists and Rising Costs
Meanwhile, the aged care sector is struggling with a mounting backlog of people waiting to receive required assessments. At present 116,000 individuals are waiting for in-home service assessments, a prerequisite for home care services. The typical time to wait has ballooned to an astounding 10-11 months. This delay exacerbates the challenges faced by families, many of whom are forced to make difficult choices while navigating a complex and often frustrating system.
Even more surprising, the government has since awarded nearly $1.2 billion in contracts. These dollars are intended to backfill clinicians within state and territory public health systems. This decision has raised concerns about the quality of care provided and whether these new arrangements will adequately meet the needs of elderly Australians. With a wartime demand for services, aged care providers are increasing their workforce’s hourly rates. Some providers have even raised prices by 30% to 40%.
“from a flat $132 to $447 per hour” – Senator David Pocock
The end result is that many part-pensioners and self-funded retirees now have extremely high personal care costs. Charges can run anywhere from $50–75 per hour. As costs rise, families are left grappling with limited resources while trying to provide necessary support for their loved ones.
Voices of Concern
The anger, anguish and pain expressed by families struggling through this devastating aged care catastrophe is overwhelming. One unnamed woman shared her experience:
“My father was discharged from hospital waiting for a package … I have been told it might be nine months. I had to resign from my job to care for him, it’s a disgrace.”
A lot of you must feel this way too. They have borne the greatest burden of the system’s failures. Natalie Siegel Brown, Inspector General for Aged Care, has been sounding the alarm. If we’re cutting care, she fears we will be exacerbating health conditions that will lead to more hospitalizations among our elderly population.
An unnamed clinical assessor remarked:
“I am forced to sign off on decisions which I don’t agree with.”
This is a huge problem. Workers have been put under greater and greater pressures in an atmosphere characterized by privatization and algorithm-driven profit motives.
The Road Ahead
With difficulties increasingly mounting, the federal government is responding. They have committed to deliver another 80,000 home care packages before the end of the financial year. Critics are already raising concerns about whether this commitment is enough. They worry that it won’t do enough to reach the more than 200,000 people that currently need home care and aren’t getting it.
Among those impacted is a Victorian pensioner who is fighting cancer and facing financial hardship. This individual expressed deep frustration with their predicament:
“co-pay is crippling … the federal government has successfully stopped me from spending my package on services to keep me in my home.”
The continuing debacle around the reform of aged care has generated anger and anxiety from the community, the sector and the government across the board. Advocacy groups are calling for immediate action and more transparent processes to ensure that vulnerable individuals receive the support they need.
