Aged Care

AGED-CARE

  • Aged-care was privatised in 1997 by John Howard  (Aged Care Act 1997). It has been all downhill from there!
  • Aged-Care is in CRISIS! Hardly any of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care have been accepted or passed by the Morrison government.
  • CoVid has simply uncovered deficiencies in the Aged-Care sector that have existed, particularly since it became corporatised.
  • CoVid has meant significant infection of CoVid by aged-care staff, as well as residents, because of slow immunisation and aged-care workers returning to their home countries and not being able to return, or being dismissed because they would not have immunisation shots.
  • Those carers in aged-care homes are doing their very best to provide the best quality care they can: many are doing double even triple shifts because
  • There is a chronic shortage of staff in aged-care centres, particularly RNs and other specialised medical staff. This means that many residents in aged-care are not able to receive the quality of care they require.
  • The aim of many family or corporately owned aged-care centres is not quality care for their residents: it is profit making for shareholders.
  • Try not being able to get out of bed until 11.00 am when the carers have time to get to you: try having to wear urinary pads constantly because there aren’t enough carers at night time to help you get to the toilet: try being showered only 3 times in seven days: try being Ann Marie Smith who died in her own faeces in a wheelchair she was unable to get out of herself  in her own home because of lack of attention by a supposed private agency home carer [The Saturday Paper, April 2-8, 2022, p6].
Aged Care