industry & reform
Lynda Henderson leaves the aged care royal commission. Photo: Kelly Barnes, AAP
Reforms a
danger to
consumers
Surge in unfit opportunists
applying to be providers,
witness says.
By Conor Burke
A
n assessor in the Approved Provider
Program Section of the Department
of Health, whose identity has been
suppressed, has told the royal commission
that many potential aged care providers are,
in their opinion, “bottom feeders”.
The witness, who was referred to as
BE, gave a statement that laid out the
problems, as they see it, in a government
department “burnt out” and “exhausted”
over the last two years due to understaffing
and policy changes.
Reforms of the sector from February
2017 have had “devastating consequences”
on the department and the quality of care
available, and the removal of the Aged
Care Approvals Round (ACAR) for home
care packages in particular has led to
a “free-for-all attitude among provider
applicants”, who “began to apply in
unimaginable numbers”.
BE stated that before the removal of
ACAR, home care needed approval from
their team, but now there is no “second
vetting” stage, which makes the process
“dangerous for older Australians”.
BE told the commission that the
department’s inadequate staffing levels
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agedcareinsite.com.au
mean they cannot do their job, and they
are “saddened” that their primary concern
is keeping “unscrupulous, unsuitable and
quite frankly dangerous applicants out of
the aged care system”.
Due to the many changes to the sector,
BE claimed there is “little support for
ensuring the robustness of the assessment
process at the front end of the sector”.
As for the calibre of some applicants,
BE’s assessment was damning.
“The reason I refer to them as ‘bottom
feeders’ is the quality of their applications is
so poor. It is so obvious that they have not
even taken the time to read the guidance
for applicants,” they said.
“They don’t understand what their
responsibilities would be as an approved
provider. [There are home care applicants
that] will have references in there to
legislation which does not exist.”
When asked by counsel assisting Timothy
McEvoy what portion of applicants would
fall into this category, BE replied: “I would
say eight out of 10 of them. I pick them up
and I start reading them ... and I go, ‘Here
we go again’.”
Also heard at the commission was Lynda
Henderson, a carer to her partner, Veda
Meneghetti, who has dementia.
Henderson told the commission
that Meneghetti’s home care package
curtailed her freedom and changed her
life entirely.
“It didn’t help her at all in that ... she
almost opposed it, so I think this is quite a
common thing with a number of people
who are newly diagnosed with dementia,”
Henderson said.
“What was difficult for Veda – who is a
very independent person who has always
made her own decisions – was to be told
that, ‘You can’t do this, and you can’t do
that. No, you can’t have your friend come
and do the cleaning anymore. No, you
can’t have another friend come and do
the gardening and a bit of maintenance
around the house’.”
Henderson also told the commission of
the hardship the pair experienced while
Meneghetti waited for an upgrade in her
home care package.
“I can tell you that during the six
months when Veda was waiting on a
Level 4 package, because her ACAT had
to be reviewed within four months, her
symptoms had progressed so fast and so
wildly,” she said.
“I really think I’m still getting over
post-traumatic stress from that six
months because I was the only person
supporting her for 20 hours a day for
six months.”
In McEvoy’s opening address, we
heard that informal carers contribute
1.9 billion hours of care to the aged
care system, or the equivalent of about
$6 billion of care. ■