Many residents of Australian aged care homes are still receiving substandard care to residents according to the latest star rating figures.
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A report reflecting data from the last quarter of 2022 showed that while care homes are improving their standards there is still a lot more to do.
The first major review since the introduction of the system shows an extra 41 services have received four and five stars (delivering good or excellent care) and the number of services receiving one and two stars has reduced by more than a third.
However 125 homes are still falling way short of providing acceptable care achieving only one or two stars.
Star ratings offer a previously unavailable insight into the quality of care delivered by individual residential aged care homes which are allocated an overall star rating based on four sub-category - residents' experience, compliance and staffing and quality measures.
Data is collected by the Department of Health and Aged Care and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission across a number of critical areas including direct feedback from residents, the National Aged Care Mandatory Quality Indicator Program, and compliance assessments.
The new figures show 54 services (2 per cent) achieved five stars - excellent; 964 services (39 per cent) achieved four stars - good; 1357 services (54 per cent) received three stars - acceptable; 119 services (5 per cent) received two stars - improvement required; and six services received one star - significant improvement required.
The figures show there are 13 fewer services with one star than the previous quarter and there are seven more services with four stars and 34 more with five stars in the latest quarter.
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said while pleased with the improvements there was still a lot more work to be done.
"I encourage providers to continue to look at ways they can improve the care they offer.
The star rating for an aged care home can be checked on the My Aged Care website.