Aged care facilities should be assessed on GP visits: AMA

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) wants ongoing medical care to be included as one of the criteria for aged care accreditation.

The association’s president, Dr Andrew Pesce said older people living in residential aged care have limited access to medical care.

“The health needs of older Australians are becoming more complex and numerous, so access to general practice services in particular is crucial,” said Dr Pesce.

Under the AMA proposals, aged care facilities would receive financial support to enter into service agreements with specific medical practitioners.

“Australia needs a long-term strategy and significant investment to prepare for the huge demand on aged care services over the next few decades,” said Dr Pesce.

“Planning for Australia’s aged care ‘boom’ must start immediately.”

But the CEO of Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA), Rod Young said it was not fair to judge nursing homes on the attendance of GPs when there is a GP workforce shortage.

“There is no sense in adding this to the list of accreditation outcomes it there are not sufficient medical professionals or sufficient alternative professionals to provide the required amount of proper medical care,” he said.

“If this were the case, we could be found deficient for an area that we have no control over. It is neither feasible nor reasonable to impose that requirement on the nursing home industry.”

Mr Young said the industry would like to see more Medicare support for doctors visiting aged care facilities, along with greater input from nurse practitioners.

“The other thing we have to seriously question is the ongoing tension between the need to provide quality medical services and the need to allow individuals to select the GP of their choice, even if they will not be able to visit frequently enough.”