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More spent on prisoners than nursing home residents

The aged care sector has condemned the Federal Government’s funding priorities, claiming that a prisoner in jail receives twice as much funding as an elderly nursing home resident.

Aged Care Industry Council (ACIC) spokesman, Rod Young, said that governments provided the equivalent of $800 in funding for each acute hospital bed and $204 for each prison bed compared to providing aged care providers with only $92 on average for each nursing home bed.

“While no-one would deny that governments have a responsibility to provide humane conditions for people who are incarcerated, I think many will be shocked to learn that elderly people who have built Australia’s prosperity receive less than half the funding that prisoners do,” Mr Young said.

“Our elderly people deserve better than this.”

ACIC represents almost 3,000 residential care services and most community care services around Australia.

It has called on both major parties to introduce an indexation formula for aged and community care which reflects the real costs of providing a quality service and commit to continuing the Conditional Adjustment Payment, which provides an extra 1.75% in funding, beyond 2008 and extending it to cover community care programs.

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