industry & reform
the financial means testing does not
even out across the country, telling the
commission that we need a fairer system
that is plain and easy for everyone to
understand and would pass “the pub test”.
In his written statement, Yates said:
“Improving respect for older Australians will
be a critical part of any future aged care
system.”
He also suggested a single national plan
for older Australians, which would put in
place strategies to eliminate ageism, as a
key to future safety in the sector.
Setting the scene
After the end of the first day’s hearing,
Clive Spriggs told Aged Care Insite how
important it was for him and his mother
“to be the first to present and speak, and
... to be able to speak in front of the royal
commission and get our point across to
them and set the scene for what’s going to
happen and where things are going to go”.
Asked whether they thought this was
finally the time that change would occur,
Barbara Spriggs was confident.
“I think it has to change,” she said. “I don’t
think it can any longer be pushed under
the carpet. There are too many people
now throughout Australia, not just South
Australia, who are so aware of these issues
that they can’t go unnoticed anymore.
Change will happen. It has to happen.”
The first day of the commission will be
the last day the Spriggs family attends,
happy now to allow other stories to be told,
and hopefully, for them, time to move on.
“It’s too confronting, too overwhelming,”
Barbara Spriggs said.
“I think we need to give other people
space to do and say what they have to,
and I don’t think it’s good for our health
and wellbeing to be listening to every
little detail.”
Care, dignity and respect
Throughout her in-depth, well-reasoned
testimony, Barbara Spriggs kept returning
to her husband Bob, and stumbled only
when she recalled her family’s struggle to
be heard and the bruised state she found
him in when he was hospitalised after
receiving 10 times the recommended dose
of antipsychotics, suffering dehydration as
well as pneumonia.
“To this day, I don’t know what happened
to Bob at Oakden,” she said.
“I wonder about those who hurt Bob and
wonder where they are now and if they are
employed somewhere else.” This thought
hung in the air.
The phrase “care, dignity and the
respect they deserve” was often repeated
throughout Spriggs’ testimony and could
set the tone for the year to come.
She ended by saying that “my testimony
will not save Bob, but I hope and pray”
that the royal commission will make
sure that “no one else will suffer as my
husband suffered”.
DAY 2: INEFFECTIVE ADVOCACY
The second day of the royal commission
threw up some ageing statistics and a
few gripes in another day where the
background problems are being laid bare
for commissioners Lynelle Briggs and
Richard Tracey.
On the first day, five witnesses were
called, including Paul Versteege, policy
manager at the Combined Pensioners and
Superannuants Association of NSW (CPSA),
who criticised a number of aged care
advocacy groups.
But first up, witness Justine Louise
Boland from the ABS briefed the room on
the way our nation is ageing. We heard that
a third of Australians aged 85 or older are in
aged care, with the number of people aged
85 or older in our population set to more
than double by 2066.
Furthermore, and likely to pique the
interest of the Australian government,
the dependency ratio on those within the
wage-earning population is also expected
to grow. As it stands, for every 48 people
who are wage earners, 52 people depend
on them. By 2042, that figure will rise to 58
people for every 42 wage earners.
The most contentious moments of the
day came from Versteege. He used his time
before the commission to take a number
of workforce and advocacy groups to task
for putting the providers above consumers,
first taking aim at the National Aged Care
Alliance (NACA).
“Initially the membership of the National
Aged Care Alliance was numerically
dominated by aged care providers, and we
believe it still is dominated by aged care
providers,” he said.
“At one point NACA had a direct line into
government, to the office for the minister
for aged care, and our concern has been
and still is that an organisation, an alliance,
that is dominated by a certain interest
group will necessarily push those interests
above all others.”
Versteege also took aim at the Aged
Care Workforce Taskforce, believing that
the exclusion of the unions is counter-
productive to sector improvements. And
Commissioners Richard Tracey and Lynelle Briggs
enter the room. Photo: Kelly Barnes AAP
as for the Aged Care Sector Committee, he
said that, again, it does not have residents’
interests at heart.
Versteege also discussed poor nutrition
standards in homes and times when meals
would go uneaten due to understaffing.
“What they found was that people were
served a meal but were unable to get to it …
And because staff were rushed, they would
not be able to assist them.
“Staff would come round and collect the
uneaten meal and a person would basically
not eat.”
DAY 3: STAFF RATIOS
Properly staffing aged care facilities with an
adequate nursing skill mix and at least four
hours and 18 minutes per-patient per-day
care minimum would not cost the sector
anything more than it currently outlays.
That’s according to a report presented
to the royal commission by the Australian
Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF)
federal secretary Annie Butler.
The ANMF-funded, Flinders University
National Aged Care Staffing and Skills Mix
Project Report made a cost-benefit analysis
of the paper’s recommendations and found
that although it would cost $5.3 billion
to implement, any costs would be offset
through tax measures and other features.
Savings made by avoiding staff attrition is
one such feature, which currently costs the
sector $500 million.
“If you had proper staffing in the places,
people would feel satisfied, fulfilled in their
jobs as nurses and carers, and we wouldn’t
see the churn that we see,” Butler told the
commission.
Staffing levels were the running theme in
Butler’s testimony, as well as skills mix and
the pay gap between the public sector and
the aged care sector.
“What we hear most often from our
members now is the increasing pressure
they’re experiencing with workloads.
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