Government inaction jeopardises aged care places
20th November, 2008
Failure by the Rudd Labor Government to provide certainty about the future funding of aged care facilities is leading to developments being put on hold, Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss said today.“In spite of the urgent need for more high care places in the community, we have already seen a number of planned aged care developments in Wide Bay shelved because of the uncertainty surrounding the Governments financial arrangements for the sector,” Mr Truss said.
“Unless age care centres are going to be profitable, they simply will not be built. This will lead to a crisis in age care accommodation.”
Mr Truss said the Government must say now whether the 1.75 per cent Conditional Adjustment Payment will be provided again in next year’s Federal Budget, to give aged care developers confidence to build new accommodation.
“There is no point in Federal Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot announcing new aged care places if providers do not have any confidence that new ventures will be viable,” Mr Truss said.
“Already offered places especially for high care residents are not being taken up and in other cases already allocated beds have not been built.”
Mr Truss also warned that unless the Government acts quickly, there is a real danger that service standards for residents and clients will fall.
According to Aged Care Queensland, if the Government abandons the Conditional Adjustment Payment, annual funding adjustments would be cut in half, meaning an average loss of $750 for every resident in aged care facilties.
If the Government froze the Conditional Adjustment Payment the sector would lose $635 million over three years, the equivalent of more than five full time jobs at every residential aged care facility in Australia.
The Aged Care industry wants the Conditional Adjustment Payment which is currently under review by the Federal Government, to be maintained and indexed and extended to community aged care. The Aged Care industry has also called on the Federal Government to comprehensively restructure and simplify the sector.
“The Government must adopt a holistic and coordinated approach to aged care. It needs to plan for the future needs of our ageing population and ensure that an appropriate level of Government assistance is available, so that providers can build the necessary infrastructure to accommodate Senior Australians.”
