AGED care facilities are on notice - they will soon face unannounced, relentless and comprehensive checks to prevent abuse and neglect of elderly residents and to ensure required standards are met.
Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt said shocking revelations about the Oakden mental health aged care residence in South Australia and other "high profile aged care failures" had shown where the system had "sadly let us down".
The new audit system will replace the current practice of giving aged care facilities advance warning of re-accreditation visits allowing staff and management to take urgent remedial action.
The minister's announcement follows the release of the review of the National Aged Care Regulatory Processes ordered after the incidences of abuse at Oakden - a facility for vulnerable dementia patients - became public knowledge.
Abuse at Oakden included massive over-medication of a resident and other medical errors, the murder of a resident by another resident, staff assaulting patients, gross inappropriate conduct including staff aggressively washing a resident's genital areas, patients left lying on the floor and staff bickering and discontent.
The review, conducted by former Liberal politician Kate Carnell, shows that the current regulatory measures designed to maintain standards in nursing homes and protect residents are failing.
The report says "When we enter residential aged care, we expect it to be a safe home, and a place of good quality care.
"We rely on the Commonwealth's regulation of aged care to ensure that people in residential aged care facilities know they are safe, well cared for and have a good quality of life.
"With over a quarter of a million Australians using residential care each year, including some of the most vulnerable in our community, it is essential that it delivers quality care and that confidence among the community is maintained."
"Failures such as those at Oakden can have catastrophic consequences for residents, including potentially resulting in illness, injury or death. They can be traumatic for staff, who lose confidence in their ability to perform their roles properly, and confronting for professionals in regulatory roles, who take their responsibility to make services as safe as possible seriously."
"Our review has identified that current regulatory mechanisms do not consistently provide the assurance of quality that the community needs and expects.
"We believe that implementation of the recommendations of this review will help remedy "deficiencies in the Commonwealth's aged care regulatory system which might have prevented the early detection and swift remediation" of failures in care such as those at Oakden.
The review held 40 consultations with consumers and their families, advocates, peak bodies, service providers, health and aged care workers, academics and regulatory experts, three consumer forums in Brisbane and Melbourne, and received 436 submissions.
Mr Wyatt said he remained "committed to working with aged care providers and the entire care sector to ensure our quality and safety standards are world-class."
The review's recommendations include:
- the establishment of an independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to centralise accreditation, compliance and complaints handling
- a star-rated system for public reporting of provider performance
- a serious incidence response scheme for aged care
- the limiting of the use of restrictive practices
- unannounced visits for re-accreditation
- enhanced complaints handling.
