Submission to Aged Care Royal Commission can now be made until July 31, 2020

More than 8600 submissions had been received by June 5 since the initial call for submissions was announced in December 2018.

The original deadline was March 24 but this was later extended to June 30 because of the pandemic.

The Commission published its first selection of general submissions received from members of the public and organisations on its website last week. Nearly 50 submissions were selected from submissions received in January 2019. Groups of up to 50 submissions from each subsequent month will be published progressively over the coming weeks and months on the Royal Commission website.

At the end of April the commissioners also announced they would investigate the impact of COVID-19 on those who received aged care services, their families and providers; and called for submissions.

The commissioners hope to understand the impact of the pandemic upon older Australians, their families and their carers, in aged care facilities and receiving home care. They will inquire into the measures put in place to protect older Australians, their families and those employed in aged care.

The commissioners will examine how residential aged care facilities such as Newmarch House, Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Opal Care Bankstown responded to the crisis and what more could have been done to support them. They will also look at how most home care providers and other facilities avoided an outbreak and seek their ideas about how to manage future pandemics or infectious disease outbreaks. The inquiry will include responses from the Australian Department of Health and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

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