Aged care is an important part of health reform
CCOA urged the prime minister and the opposition leader to address aged care in their health debate.
Aged care groups have urged the prime minister and the opposition leader to acknowledge the role of aged care in their debate on health reform today.
The Campaign for Care Older Australians (CCOA) said the problems in the health system can never be addressed without tackling issues in aged care.
“We would like to see some recognition of the important role that aged care plays in the overall health system,” said the CCOA spokesperson and Aged and Community Services Australia CEO, Greg Mundy.
“We need to have sufficient aged care services in the right place and at the right time to support people being discharged from hospital and to avoid hospitalisation in the first place.
“If we want places at short notice, we probably need more residential facilities and perhaps even more residential aged care.”
Mr Mundy said there were also a number of practical issues such as funding and the streamlining of community care programs that need to be addressed.
“There are some basic improvements that could be made to enable aged care to fulfill its role in supporting the rest of the health system.”
The CEO of Catholic Health Australia, Martin Laverty said the government could act now to ease the pressure on hospitals by supporting aged care providers.
“The fastest way the prime minister and the opposition leader could improve the performance of Australia’s public hospitals is to free up 3,000 hospital beds by fast-tracking the 3,000 [older] people in hospital beds who would be better off in an aged care service,” he said.
