Thread by @the_shb

The destructive effects of aged care privatisation in Australia: thread.

Commonwealth funding of aged care is tipped to reach $21.7bn+ in this financial year.

This is 80% of the sector's funding. The remaining 20% is contributed by consumers through RADs and daily fees. #auspol

Thanks to the reforms ushered in via the 1997 Aged Care Act, this $21.7+ billion of Commonwealth funding is not earmarked for care. It is up to providers' discretion how they spend it.

So long as they meet the accreditation requirements, they can retain unspent monies as profit.

This has effectively incentivised for-profit providers to reduce expenditure on care and retain taxpayer funding to bolster their bottom line.

Providers have replaced nurses with less expensive carers, most of whom have a 6-wk Tafe certificate and earn $23/hr.

The aged care workforce is less skilled than it once was, with far fewer medically trained nurses.

There are no federal requirements for an aged care facility to even have a single R.N. on site at present - in spite of the acute medical needs of many aged care residents.

Profiteering has also led to chronic understaffing, which in turn produces much of the appalling neglect documented at the Royal Commission: medication mismanagement, an overreliance on physical and chemical restraint, malnutrition, preventable injuries and premature deaths.

And the profits - which flow from the neglect of older Australians - are HUGE.

Bupa posted profits of $663m in 2017 - $468m of which came from taxpayer funds.

Its profit was $560m in 2018 - the same year it also failed basic care standards in more than half its homes. #auspol

Opal, Australia's second-biggest provider after Bupa, posted income of $527.2m in 2015-16, 76% of which came from government funding.

That same year, it only paid $2.4m in tax, on a taxable income of $7.9m. #auspol

Australia's top six for-profit providers received $2.17bn dollars of taxpayer funding in 2017 alone.

Regis, Estia, Japara are ASX-listed, and report to ASIC - but Bupa, Opal and Allity do not publicly report what proportion of federal government funding is spent on care #auspol

The federal government has been throwing money at for-profit aged care providers, incentivising them not to spend it on care, requiring no transparent public reporting on where that expenditure goes, yet is "shocked" by the neglect detailed in the RC's interim report. #auspol

It is not shocking that for-profit providers are not spending billions of Commonwealth funding on care when they can retain it for profit.

It is not shocking that these policy settings have produced horrific neglect and negligence of vulnerable older Australians. #auspol

What's shocking is that this under-regulated, understaffed, frequently neglectful sector has been given free rein with so much public funding and so little accountability.

Privatisation is fundamentally incompatible with quality care outcomes. #auspol

Older Australians deserve for every cent of aged care funding to be spent on quality care. They deserve dignity and compassion. They deserve to know that when they need help, someone who is qualified, well paid, well-trained and part of an well-staffed workforce, will help them.

It’s worth adding that horrific neglect and abuse have occurred in state-run, not for profit AND for-profit aged care facilities. Privatisation has had a pernicious effect on care standards, but it’s not the only culprit for the horrific state of aged care in Australia.
#auspol

A toothless regulator that serves the needs of providers rather than residents, inadequate legal protections for older Australians, and a lack of mandatory staffing requirements are all to blame for the current atrocious state of affairs. #auspol

Systemic reform is required to protect the human rights of all aged care residents, no matter what facility they live in.

We need proactive leadership, not reactive leadership.

And all we’ve had for the past two decades is the latter. That’s the biggest disgrace of all #auspol