The risky business of reform
Aged care providers and government need a new approach to risk management, according to the Productivity Commission.
Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald.
Developing a better approach to quality assurance and risk management in aged care will be a major focus of the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into aged care.
Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald told the Aged and Community Care Victoria (ACCV) State Congress that the sector has too much red tape.
“It’s already clear to us that the regulatory burden in the aged care system is disproportionate,” he said. “The regulation in this sector is greater than the regulation required for running a hospital – the reason is that we no longer understand risk.
“We are not good at understanding risk; at assessing it, managing it and ultimately financing it.”
Mr Fitzgerald said aged care regulation tends to be driven by short-term political objectives with few real benefits for consumers and unintended consequences for providers.
“The real problem in aged care is that regulatory reform is driven by high profile incidents that attract public criticism,” said the commissioner. “These incidents create a political risk for the government and its response is to introduce new regulation which doesn’t necessarily improve quality.
“But the aged care sector can’t just complain that it is overregulated – I could do that. You need to come up with a system that protects quality and addresses the needs of the government to protect its political risk as well.”
The comments echoed concerns about the government’s ‘zero risk’ approach to quality control which were raised in the commission’s review of the regulatory burden on social and economic infrastructure services last September.
Mr Fitzgerald said the inquiry process would give aged care providers the opportunity to re-shape the sector.
But he added that the inquiry was not designed to promote the interests of providers but consumers.
“We are not starting from the perspective of what is good for governments or what is good for providers but what is good for ageing Australians,” he said.
“Many inquiries in this area have looked at aged care purely from a financing point of view so it’s important to start by looking at the needs and aspirations of older Australians.”
The former chair of the government’s National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission also urged aged care providers to get involved in the inquiry.
“Have a voice,” she said. “The Productivity Commission’s inquiry is underway right now.
“If you think what we said was good, let us know and if you have some other solutions, make them known as well. And don’t just tell us the problems.”
Submissions to the inquiry must be received by Friday, 30 July and the commission will release a draft report in December. It will hand the final report to the federal government in April next year.
