Aged care hits the target
New figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare confirm nationwide aged care provision is very close to meeting the need, at least, based on the Department of Health and Ageing’s projections from 2007.
By Stephen Easton
The Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) has come very close to meeting a target set in 2007 for the number of Australians requiring aged care, according to the latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
In 2007 the Department decided to gradually increase the number of residential care beds and home care packages over the following five years, to provide aged care for 113 of every 1000 Australians aged over 70, by 30 June 2011.
It was decided that on average, 88 in every 1000 Australian people over 70 years would require a residential bed, and 25 would require one of three types of community aged care packages.
According to two reports containing the latest AIHW statistics for the 2010-11 financial year, the government came close to meeting its target.
As at 30 June 2011, there were 112.5 residential aged care beds and home care packages for every 1000 citizens older than 70, which breaks down into 85.7 residential beds, and 26.8 community care packages.
Despite DoHA coming very close to meeting its overall aged care provision target, care providers in many parts of the country did not take up all the residential places on offer in the last four annual Aged Care Approvals Rounds (ACAR).
CEO of industry association Aged and Community Services Australia, Adjunct Professor John Kelly, said that within the tight regulatory constraints of aged care funding, the Department could not be criticised for rationing out the funded beds and home care packages in a “sensible bureaucratic way”.
Even so, he agreed the figures showed that the sector’s unwillingness to take up all the residential beds on offer in some areas was being made up by releasing more communtiy care packages.
“It does appear strange that in fact, there’s been under-subscription [for residential beds] in a number of jurisdictions in the last three years – everyone agrees on that – yet we’ve still been able to get a set of statistics that meet the target,” Professor Kelly said.
The 2011 Productivity Commission (PC) aged care inquiry recommended the entire restrictive system of bed licenses and community care packages be abolished, and replaced with one more like a free market, based on universal entitlement.
Professor Kelly said the industry had strongly supported the PC’s suggestion for a deregulated aged care market, but acknowledged that from the point of view of those managing government spending, aged care “has got to be a controlled market”.
“I dont think the providers’ perspectives have changed at all – that they should [deregulate aged care]. Minister Butler’s repsonse is that he’s receptive to that, in five years’ time. He’s got five-year reform timetable, so he’ll look at easing things in five years, which is a pretty reasonable response.”
The AIHW data – contained in two separate reports released yesterday – indicates a growing shift in funding from residential to community aged care, which has balanced out the the number of residential bed licenses not taken up, or handed back by providers, due to the declining financial viability of their facilities.
According to the head of the AIHW’s Ageing and Aged Care unit, Judith Abercromby, that trend is deliberate, and likely to continue.
“They’re going to continue moving more resources and offering more packages in the community, rather than in residential aged care,” Ms Abercromby said. “I genuinely think they are trying to adjust the system to cope with the demand where it is, which is certainly greater across the board, in the community.”
Ms Abercromby said the figures reflected the government’s efforts to adjust allocations within the planning system in response to rising demand for community aged care, as noted by the PC inquiry and the government’s response – the Living Longer, Living Better reform package.
“More community aged care packages can relieve the pressure on residential care. It was very clear to the Productivity Commission that people would prefer to stay at home if they could, but there weren’t enough packages.”
The new statistics also show the size of residential aged care facilities is growing, the average facility now containing 67 beds. In 2011, 45 per cent had more than 60 places, compared with only 30 per cent in 2005.
One must surely appreciate that both the Gillard Government and the Dept of Health & Ageing can perform magic with all their smoke and mirrors tricks aided by the spin doctors. Why is it then that in WA, there remains a 3000 bed deficit because providers just haven’t applied for or built any new places over the past 4 years due to ‘affordability’. During this time several providers returned sizeable quantities of provisional bed licenses not because there wasn’t a demand but rather the funding levels were and remain inadequate. Unfortunately Mr Butlers LLLB just isn’t going to address this. So the Dept can shift bed licences to other parts of Australia so it appears that all the places have been allocated and the boxes can all be ticked, but what remains in say WA is a serious problem that neither the Minister, nor the Dept have addressed. Like fairies at the bottom of the garden, smoke and mirrors may do the trick in convincing the true believers
National arithmetic averages provides the Government with an effective political mask for the real situation; particularly in social and geographical areas of need!
The over supply in metropoliitan areas camoflauge the chronic undersupply and underfunding in regional Australia, and in providing culturally appropriate care for indigenous and CALD populations.
Furthermore, notwithstanding the undeniable benefits of community based care, there will always be a need for quality residential care. Presently, as this care is provided by the NFP and private sectors; supply will very quickly dry up if a reasonal return on investment is unachievable..
Peter Hennessy’s comments are so true. The Gillard Gov’t is once again using smoke and mirrors to present a picture that really does not reflect reality. As much as community care remains an attractive option supported by the notion that we all wish to remain ‘at home’, for many the fact remains that a day will come when we just might need to go into residential care, however with Mr Butler’s shallow reforms, it is likely that the search for a residential care place may be a long one with so few providers committed to building the needed facilities. The ACFI funding cutbacks and the failure to provide any price rise indexation will prove to be detrimental.