Pressure test politicans for aged care
Federal politicians will be getting their blood pressure tested during this week’s national Australian Labor Party (ALP) conference in Sydney as part of an Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) aged care campaign.
ANF secretary, Ged Kearney, says the federation is targeting politicians at the conference as part of its ‘Because We Care: Quality Care For Older Australians’ campaign.
“We are going to take politicians’ blood pressures and if it’s not high we are going to sit them down and make sure it’s high by the time we let them go,” Ms Kearney said.
“We are really going to get them to think about aged care,” she said.
Ms Kearney said appearances on ABC Television’s Q&A program and a National Press Club address were also planned. The campaign’s goal was to close the wages gap for aged care nurses, ensure nursing homes were accountable for Federal Government funds, introduce minimum staffing levels at homes and establish a licensing system for staff.
“Billions of dollars a year of Federal Government funding go to providers but they don’t have to account for it,” Ms Kearney said.
“We don’t know if all the money is going to the nursing home and then you hear terrible stories such as the one in Victoria where an aged care provider gave $2 million to her soccer club – you think this couldn’t happen if there was proper accountability”.
She said 76% of admissions to nursing homes were people who needed high level care.
The ‘Because We Care’ campaign began in March and included television and newspaper advertisements.
