Vic Auditor slams fire safety

The Victorian Government has underspent $81 Million on urgent capital works needed to upgrade or replace its state run nursing homes, according to a scathing report by the Victorian Auditor General.

It found that of the $336 Million allocated for capital works in 45 state nursing homes over the past six years, $81 Million had remained unspent.

The Auditor General’s Report, released on 24 August, said the state of Victoria’s aged care homes had deteriorated since the last examination in 2001 and blamed the Department of Human Services for failing to exercise its responsibilities in ensuring high quality care for residents.

“We consider that the conditions in the majority of the facilities has not improved since 2001,” the report said.

The report found that 51% of homes inspected failed to meet Commonwealth fire safety standards. Conditions at most homes had not improved since 2001, and 104 homes had “failing, inadequate or obsolete infrastructure”- up from 33 homes in 2001. Twenty one of the 33 homes identified as a problem in 2001 were yet to be rebuilt.

The Victorian Aged Care Minister, Gavin Jennings, said that improvements could be made across Victoria , but said that the Auditor General’s Report acknowledged that all homes met federal certification requirements around safety, including fire safety.

DHS disputed the findings and promised to provide documentation to prove the assessment was wrong.