Above: Robert Brokenshire MLC.

By Stephen Easton

A South Australian state politician has uncovered a sharp rise in the number of deaths in the state’s aged care facilities reported to the SA Coroner over the last five years, and so far nobody can explain why.

Robert Brokenshire MLC, a member of the SA upper house, obtained figures from the State Coroner’s office showing a 63 per cent rise in the number of deaths in nursing homes reported to the Coroner.

In contrast, deaths among all people aged over 80 increased by only 17 per cent in the same period, Mr Brokenshire said.

He now wants the Minister for Mental Health, Ageing and Social Inclusion, Mark Butler, to launch an investigation into whether a similar increase has occurred across the other states and territories.

“I’m writing to the minister to say I don’t want to be an alarmist, but there is an issue here,” Mr Brokenshire said. “We do need to have a national review into this trend with respect to all nursing homes, and if there is a [national] trend, what can be done to reduce that.”

Each year, about 4,500 people die in South Australian nursing homes, but they are only reported to the Coroner if they are suspected of being from other than natural causes, according to a news report.

The Family First MLC obtained the figures through a freedom of information request, after a constituent raised concerns about the death of a family member in a nursing home.

“From time to time most politicians would get a constituent raising concerns about matters to do with aged care and nursing homes, but in this case we had a constituent who had a very serious negative experience with a loved one dying in a nursing home, and felt that one of the issues was the lack of staff resources,” Mr Brokenshire said

“They felt from their observations that there were people dying that, arguably, may not have if there was more staff to manage the demands of these people who are in need of very good care.

“Then of course there is my anecdotal knowledge from meeting people who visit or work in aged care facilities; the staff say they are just run off their feet.”

Yesterday, a group of aged care workers, unions and employers fronted Paliament House in Canberra and demanded an $8 an hour pay rise for aged care staff. Unions such as the Australian Nursing Federation have also campaigned for increased staff-to-resident ratios in aged care for many years.

“Clearly the federal government have got to look seriously at providing bigger funding support to the aged care facilities to cover a wage increase,” Mr Brokenshire said. “There’s clearly not enough profit in the aged care sector to pick that up.

“The federal government might say they’re cash-strapped, but at the end of the day we have a duty of care to ensure that when our older Australians need nursing home care, we provide it adequately, based on the fact that those people have paid taxes for decades to help build the nation.”

“Number one: we need to be able to pay the staff adequately so we get them continuing in their work – most of them love their work but they need to be paid adequately.

“Secondly, is there sufficient money being provided by the federal government – and the states where they have to – to ensure these organisations can sustain themselves, and pay their way forward?

“Noone can run at a loss, and they should not be expected to run at a loss. If they’re running a balanced budget they will have pressure not to increase their staff ratios, the quality of the food and the general care they provide."

Mr Brokenshire said that further stories had emerged when the figures were discussed on an Adelaide radio station this morning.

"One person in the media today said their loved one had dementia and because of a lack of staff resourcing was often left to feed themselves," he said. "And they argued that the person eventually passed away from malnutrition because there wasn’t sufficient support to sit by that person and make sure they ate their food.

"I’m confident the aged care providers, in these facilities, do the best they can. But they can’t run at a loss and one of the highest costs in these facilities is labour.”

According to a news story published in Adelaide Now, consumer advocates Ian Yates, CEO of COTA, and Marylin Crabtree from the Aged Rights Advocacy Service agreed that federal authorities should investigate the situation.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Ageing, quoted in the article, made the point that people are entering nursing homes at an older age with higher care needs, but accepted that this was not a sufficient explanation for the steep rise in deaths.

The South Australian Coroner received reports about 213 deaths in aged care facilities in 2007, which has steadily increased to 346 in 2011.