So the minister who had NO PLAN to prevent outbreaks in aged care, made PPE training voluntary, put no policy in place regarding hospital transfers, and didn't even know the numbers of deaths, is now pointing fingers.
- Put no national plan in place for COVID in aged care
- Couldn't even say whether he'd briefed Cabinet about the Royal Commission's interim report
- Did not know the number of aged care deaths in Senate hearings - not once, but TWICE
- Implemented no meaningful changes after the fatal outbreaks at Newmarch House and Dorothy Henderson Lodge
- Failed to consider how the existing failures in aged care would exacerbate the threat posed by COVID outbreaks
- Failed to provide expert infection control to facilities
- Provided incomplete and inaccurate information to providers, telling them as late as August that they only needed to prepare for a 20-30% loss of workforce, when there was clear international evidence outbreaks could decimate the workforce #auspol#agedcarerc
- Failed to make face marks compulsory in aged care until 13 July - after residents had started to die in Victorian aged care
- Spent $92 million on a failed "one worker, one workplace" scheme that the government had no way of monitoring #auspol#agedcarerc
- Refused to release heat maps of facilities with outbreaks — even confidentially to providers — until September, making it infinitely harder to providers to know whether staff working across multiple sites were putting residents at risk #auspol#agedcarerc
- Utterly failed to make any progress whatsoever on areas of urgent action identified in the Royal Commission's Interim Report, including the 100,00+ home care waitlist, widespread chemical and physical restraint, and young people with disabilities in aged care. #agedcarerc
If ANYONE needs to step up the plate and take responsibility for the overwhelming and tragic failures in aged care, IT IS HIM.
Yesterday, Morrison referred to the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) as part of the government's "comprehensive plan" for aged care.
The phrase "aged care" only occurs in this document 20 times. Here they are: #auspol#agedcarerc
1. Aged care lumped into a list of groups that may require special strategies.
2. Aged care mentioned as an area that might be "stretched to capacity" in the case of wide spread.
I'm having a read through of the CDNA National Guidelines, touted by Brendan Murphy today at the #agedcarerc as a "comprehensive national plan" for COVID in aged care.
First of all, these are clearly guidelines, not a plan; they say so repeatedly.
Secondly, the entire document itself is only 44 pages long. If you subtract the posters at the end from the WHO on hand washing and coughing and sneezing, it is 39 pages long.
Minus appendices, it is 20 pages long. "Comprehensive"? Hardly. #auspol#agedcarerc
The onus to manage COVID is placed squarely on providers:
"The primary responsibility of managing COVID outbreaks lies with the RCF...All RCF should have access to infection control expertise, whether in-house or not, and outbreak management plans in place." #auspol#agedcarerc
Aged Care Minister Colbeck said he was "shocked" by the neglect revealed in the #agedcarerc Interim Report.
He insisted providers were "doing well across the board" in May, and made no federal COVID aged care plan.
At what point does naiveté become incompetence? #auspol
Remember, Colbeck is part of the government that CALLED the #agedcarerc due to systemic neglect - yet he had the gall to claim he was "shocked" by the findings of its interim report.
If he were across his portfolio, NOTHING in that report should have shocked him. #auspol
Colbeck has made no inroads in the three areas of "urgent action" identified by @RoyalAged:
- young ppl w/ disabilities trapped in aged care
- over-reliance on chemical and physical restraint
- 100k+ older Australians languishing on the home care waitlist #auspol#agedcarerc
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.