Submission
AMA Submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee on the Effectiveness of the Aged Care Quality Assessment and accreditation framework for protecting residents from abuse and poor practices, and ensuring proper clinical and medical care
In this submission, we argue that:
- Medical practitioners should be included as part of the aged care workforce to ensure residents of aged care facilities are receiving quality care.
- Aged care needs funding for the recruitment and retention of registered nursing staff and carers, specifically trained in dealing with the issues that older people face.
- The aged care sector needs a contemporary system that embraces information technology (IT) infrastructure for patient management.
- There needs to be clear, specific, and confidential complaints referral pathways in each RACF so information on complaints processes are easily accessible to both residents and staff.
- The aged care system needs an overarching, independent, Aged Care Commissioner that provides a clear, well-communicated, governance hierarchy that brings leadership and accountability to the aged care system.
Many of these issues need to be reflected in specific accreditation standards that have a strong focus on health. In particular, an ‘access to medical care’ standard should be introduced. These standards should be clear and firm to protect the health and wellbeing of older people.
