Medical care in aged care centres would free up hospital beds
AMA President, Steve Hambleton, said today that there is an urgent need to make medical care more accessible for elderly people in aged care centres.
Dr Hambleton said that the Victorian Government’s hospital report card shows that large numbers of hospital beds in that State are being taken up by elderly people waiting to be admitted to aged care centres.
“This is occurring all around the country – it is a national problem,” Dr Hambleton said.
“Governments and aged care providers must put in place measures to ensure easy and ongoing access to medical care for residents of aged care facilities.
“The AMA has advised the Federal Government to introduce an accreditation standard for access to medical care for residents of aged care homes to encourage providers to establish appropriate clinical treatment areas in their facilities.
“There must also be greater incentives for doctors to spend more time visiting patients in aged care.
“We were disappointed that the Productivity Commission's draft Caring for Older Australians report made only passing reference to the medical care needs of elderly people.
“Older Australians need and deserve ongoing access to their doctors when they enter the aged care system.
“These reforms will go some way to reducing admissions to hospital from aged care homes.”
The AMA has recommended the following aged care reforms to the Government:
- Aged care accreditation arrangements that more closely monitor and guarantee that aged care residents receive medical care and supervision on an ongoing basis;
- Specific financial support to allow approved residential aged care providers to enter into arrangements with medical practitioners, underpinned by a retainer, to ensure residents can access ongoing medical care;
- MBS rebates that better reflect the complexity of providing ongoing medical care to residents of aged care homes who are very frail and have complex medical conditions;
- Government support to residential aged care providers to ensure there are adequately equipped clinical treatment areas that afford patient privacy and information technology to enable access to medical records and to improve medication management; and
- Sufficient numbers of registered nurses to monitor, assess and care for residents and liaise with doctors.
The Productivity Commission’s final report is due this month.
2 June 2011
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