Alzheimer’s Australia has expressed concern about the aged care industry’s latest reform proposals, saying they fail to address the need for greater consumer choice.

Last week Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA), Hynes Lawyers and PKF released a joint report, calling for new approaches to capital and recurrent funding, aged care planning and regulatory compliance.

The report was based on industry consultation and a survey of 200 approved providers.

But the CEO of Alzheimer’s Australia, Glenn Rees, said the scope of the report was too narrow.

“It’s like going back in time to the stone age in the sense that it loses sight of the focus of the wider reform agenda,” he said.

“It’s concerned with changing the existing system at the margins, not what older people want.”

“The report does not recognise the priority to strengthen community; there is no recognition of the need for separating accommodation and care; and no recognition of consumer directed models of care.

“As consumers we are not in denial about the importance of residential care but it is entirely wrong in the context of aged care reform, not to have a wider agenda that includes other options.”

Mr Rees acknowledged that the industry’s concerns about funding sustainability are legitimate but he said aged care providers need to be prepared to embrace new approaches to care.

“What older people want is the mix of community and residential care that they need and that requires a different way of thinking from the current system,” he said.

Mr Rees said aged care reform needs to focus on boosting supply and increasing choice for elderly Australians.

“With the current basis for planning, we will have a problem in terms of aggregate supply by 2030 and within that supply, the balance of care is wrong,” he said.

“We won’t have the choice we need between community care and residential care.”

Click here for more information about the joint report from ACAA, Hynes and PKF.