Aged care: a bleak picture

Volunteers for the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) 
national phone-in last Saturday have struggled to deal with the 
number of calls from aged care staff, residents and their 
families. The phone-in was conducted to find out how well aged 
care services were performing in meeting the needs of the aged. 
The overwhelming message was that there is a lack of federal 
funding.

This translates into lack of staff to meet the needs of aged care 
residents, with 93 per cent of callers in South Australia 
nominating staffing levels as one of the issues that prompted 
them to call.

The phone-in painted a bleak picture of the aged care system and 
its inability to provide the proper level of care to the frail 
and chronically ill.

Callers praised the dedicated work of aged care nurses, personal 
carers and other staff but stressed they were run ragged trying 
to achieve the impossible. In one example in Victoria, a caller 
rang saying that two nurses were forced to look after 90 
residents, more than 45 of whom were high care with chronic and 
complex health conditions, including heart disease, dementia and 
diabetes.

Nurses and other care staff reported immense frustration at their 
inability to meet the needs of residents. They reported being 
unable to spare the necessary time with residents to keep them 
engaged socially, to ensure they had sufficient opportunities to 
take exercise and to supervise eating and drinking needs.

Families reported difficulties gaining access to aged care 
services with long waiting lists for both community care and for 
residential services.

Callers were also concerned about what they perceived as the 
Howard Government's lax aged care regulations, including the fact 
that the Aged Care Standards Agency gave facilities up to three 
months notice before carrying out a "spot check".

And when callers were asked if they believed the Federal 
Government was properly funding aged care, many said they did not 
know how to answer because providers are not accountable for how 
they spend taxpayers' dollars. Both staff and family members said 
there ought to be greater control and accountability of how aged 
care facilities spend money.

Many family members complained about the quality and amount of 
food provided for residents. Staff members called for an 
expansion of quality spot checks saying that the accreditation 
system was inadequate and open to abuse.

"It is depressing that nothing has changed since we conducted 
this phone-in three years ago", said ANF Victorian Assistant 
Branch Secretary, Jan Brownrigg. "More than 100 callers reported 
the same serious concerns about the aged care system's inability 
to provide residents with the proper level of care due to chronic 
under-staffing and inadequate staff mix, funding levels, funding 
accountability and regulations."

Lee Thomas, Secretary of the South Australian Branch of the ANF, 
said 98 percent of callers spoke of poor staffing levels and 
skills mix as reasons for nurses and other care staff leaving or 
not seeking to work in aged care.