AMA: not enough care in aged care reform

The Australian Medical Association says the aged care reform process lacks any discussion of how to improve access to medical care in aged care facilities and the homes of older people, and that their recent offer to help has been rebuffed by government.

Above: The AMA president, Dr Steve Hambleton.

By Stephen Easton

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has questioned the lack of detail around access to medical services in the government’s aged care reform package, and asked why it was not on the agenda at the government’s National Aged Care Conference this week.

The AMA has warned the reform package will not deliver on its aims because the government and key stakeholders, like the National Aged Care Alliance, have not placed enough priority on the medical needs of older Australians.

While many older Australians receive aged care in residential facilities or in their homes, it is often difficult for them to see external healthcare providers like GPs and dentists.

AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton said it was not the association’s intention to attack the government, but to support its efforts to reform aged care. 

“We want to support these industry initiatives,” Dr Hambleton said. “We can talk about the bricks and mortar, but we still have to talk about the actual medical care as well. At the end of the day, we all want to work towards a solution.”

The Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler, recently declined an offer from the AMA to help convene a consultative group to advise on how to improve access to medical and nursing services for people receiving aged care at home, or in residential aged care facilities.

The idea is that such a group, representing the medical and nursing professions along with relevant specialist disciplines like palliative care, is needed to specifically advise on where some of the funding announced under the reforms should be directed.

“The [reform] package has funding for medical practitioners to make a more timely diagnosis of dementia, and for palliative care, but the amount of funding for these services is yet to be specified,” Dr Hambleton said.

He said the AMA wanted the proposed group to advise on “how to direct this funding to ensure medical and nursing care for older Australians, who can’t make the trip to the surgeries and clinics where these services are provided”.

While the Living Longer, Living Better (LLLB) reforms would fund home care for nearly 40,000 older people, the AMA president said he was aware of very little discussion around how to improve their access to medical services.

While he agreed with the focus on home care packages, in line with the preference of most Australians, he said the loading currently applied to Medicare rebates for GPs to make house calls was inadequate.

As a consequence, he said doctors very rarely see older people at home or in residential aged care facilities, because it was more cost-effective for them to stay in their practices. 

“The Minister must recognise that older people are at risk of adverse outcomes if they become housebound and socially isolated and their access to medical and nursing services is inadequate.”

“It is critical that aged care policy covers access to medical and nursing support services, and there must be appropriate Medicare rebates that recognise the additional work and complexity in providing high quality medical care outside the doctor’s surgery.

“People should not have lesser access to quality health care just because they are getting old.” 

Tags: australian-medical-association, doctors, reform,

1 thought on “AMA: not enough care in aged care reform

  1. This reminds me of the quote “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10000 a day”, Linda Evangelista, or Tom Cruise “Show me the money”.

    The AMA can be counted on expressing interest in attending to all Australians’ health, showing up anytime there’s new money on the table, but never talk about the sometimes extreme differences in quality of care at the medical coalface.

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