industry & reform
Richard Colbeck, minister for aged care
and senior Australians. Photo: Kym Smith
From the top
Health minister discusses
COVID-19 response, aged care
waiting lists and stoush with
royal commission.
By Conor Burke
T
he minister for aged care and senior
Australians has one of the tougher
jobs going in Australian politics at
the moment.
Tasmanian senator Richard Colbeck
got the job after the last federal election
and bang in the middle of an aged care
royal commission, whose commissioners
have described the business at the heart
of the minister’s new portfolio as “cruel
and harmful”.
And now the sector faces a once-in-
a-generation pandemic, during which all
those who have died were aged over 60,
and outbreaks have occurred in several
aged care facilities across the country.
This has led to tough new restrictions
on who can visit aged care homes, with
the government limiting residents to two
visitors a day for short periods and no
outside entertainment allowed.
These restrictions may become tougher
still as the virus spreads and government
advice changes, leading some advocates to
worry about the rights of older Australians.
HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERN
Peak bodies such as COTA are worried that
providers are using the restrictions as an
“excuse for unacceptable restraint on the
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rights of residents”, and others are worried
that the worst abuses uncovered by the
aged care royal commission will now go
on unchecked.
“The advice from the [Australian Health
Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC)]
was to put the measures in place,” Colbeck
tells Aged Care Insite.
“It’s caused some dislocation in some
areas. It’s caused some concern in others.
And the way that it’s managed is just as
important, and I’ve had that conversation
with the sector and with the aged care
quality and safety commissioner.
“The quality standards don’t go away
because of the current circumstances
around COVID-19, so we still expect that
providers across Australia continue to
comply with the quality standards.
“The quality standards take into account
quite significantly the needs of the
residents. The new quality standard is very
much a resident-focused approach.”
Of the outbreaks at facilities in Western
Australia, South Australia, Victoria,
Queensland and NSW, Colbeck says these
homes have immediate engagement from
the state health authority which continues
through the outbreak.
He adds that every aged care provider in
Australia has been contacted by the Aged
Care Quality and Safety Commissioner as
part of its promised COVID-19 audits of
poor performers.
As for the workforce, Colbeck says the
government is constantly working on
strategies for a scenario where a portion
of aged care staff fall ill or even walk off
the job, as was the case at the Dorothy
Henderson Lodge facility.
“We’ve been working to ensure that
there is an available surge workforce in the
circumstance where we do get an outbreak
within a facility, particularly if it has a direct
impact on staffing,” he says.
“We announced last week a retention
bonus for frontline staff who were working
care workers and nurses in the facilities,
so that we’d give them an incentive to
continue to come to work. It’s extremely
important that they do.
“Our capacity to look after senior
Australians is dependent on those staff.
And we continue to work with the facilities
and other groups around ensuring there is
the capacity within the system.”
Colbeck says the government is striving
to make sure providers and staff have
adequate PPE to feel safe and to carry out
their work. And, as flu season approaches,
he is also aiming to have flu vaccinations
available to the aged care sector earlier
than usual this year.
He says his department also has
strategies in place for home care providers
should any home care recipients contract
COVID-19 or need to be in isolation, and
these providers and their staff will have
access to the PPE stockpile should the
need arise.
TIMELY RESPONSE
The federal government has been accused
at times of dragging its feet and sending
mixed messages to the public during this
pandemic, and it has also copped criticism