Red tape hinders quality aged care
Excessive red tape governing Australia’s aged care is hindering quality service provision, according to Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) chief executive officer, Greg Mundy.
He said the just released draft report of the Productivity Commission’s Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business, highlights long-standing concerns that onerous regulations in the aged care sector come at a cost.
“The human and financial costs of red tape are unnecessary, unreasonable and unsustainable,” Mr Mundy said.
“The Commission’s draft report reinforces our concerns that the excessive duplication of regulatory requirements from all levels of government impact on service delivery. The report acknowledges the extensive list of compliance measures demanded of aged care facilities and has included in its recommendations, the removal (as far as possible) of ‘onerous duplicate and inconsistent regulations’.
“The Commission’s finding that a disproportionate desire to ‘regulate risk out of the system’ can lead to unintended adverse consequences in service delivery, is a common experience for aged care providers who agree with the conclusions that regulations ‘are highly prescriptive with excessive reporting requirements’.
“We also support the view that governments use regulations to respond to adverse incidents attracting intense media coverage so they can be seen to be ‘doing something’.
“There can no longer be any doubt about the need for reform in the aged care sector. This report, the interim report by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and the recent Senate Inquiry are all repeating the same message.
“Aged care facilities are starting to lose the battle to stay afloat, as demonstrated by yesterday’s announcement of two more facilities marked for closure.
“The provision of aged care is an essential service and one that we know will continue to expand as our population ages. The Federal Government must respond now to the overwhelming case for reform and really ‘do something’. This must include streamlining the regulation of services”.
