National Aged Care Alliance suggests solutions to aged care system problems
The National Aged Care Alliance (the Alliance) speaking on behalf of 27 peak consumer groups, unions, aged care providers and health professionals has outlined practical solutions for an aged care system that faces a rapidly growing demand for services.
The Alliance calls on all Federal parties in the lead up to the next Federal election to commit to strategies that will ensure all older people in Australia are cared for safely and with dignity no matter where they reside.
The Alliance spokesperson Glenn Rees, national executive director of Alzheimer’s Australia, said ‘this document is a blueprint for the next Government to build a robust and affordable system for the future that will provide all Australians, including those from different cultural backgrounds and Indigenous people, with choice and fairness in access to quality aged care services”.
”There is a need for new thinking in key areas if the system is to respond flexibly to the variety of accommodation and care needs of older Australians,” he said.
The Alliance’s solutions include:
– improved residential and transitional care, including hospital in the home and residential care programs that will reduce hospital admissions of older people;
– care subsidies that keep pace with increasing costs of care;
– an increase in the number of care packages in the community;
– wages and working conditions comparable with the acute health care sector for all staff working in aged care;
– extra support services for carers and families; and
– an integrated information system to decrease duplication in assessment procedures and reduce errors in medication.
Further details of the Alliance’s federal election platform are available at www.naca.asn.au
