Victorian providers defend media claims
ACCV and Bentley’s Chartered Accountants have spoken out against recent media claims which allege that aged care residents in Victoria are being fed a starvation diet.
Victorian providers have taken a stand against recent media allegations which claim that nursing home residents across the state are being fed a starvation diet of tinned food.
The Herald Sun article, “Documents reveal aged care residents in Victoria are fed on $5 per day”, painted a stark picture of food service and care within nursing homes across the state, alleging that residents survive on a diet costing $5.80 per day.
According to the article, this kind of diet typically includes “a large amount of canned food and cheap carbohydrate, but little dairy or fresh protein”.
It also compared the $5 dietary cost to the $7 figure of what is spent per day, per head by facilities on management fees.
CEO of Aged and Community Care Victoria (ACCV), Gerard Mansour, has defended the quality of food in aged care, as well as the sector’s commitment to providing nutritious meals to residents throughout the country.
“I absolutely defend the industry against the scurrilous allegations inappropriately reported in the Herald Sun about the quality of food in aged care,” Mr Mansour said.
“This is one of the standards measured under our accreditation system and the industry consistently scores extremely high in the quality of food and nutrition for residents.
“The menus are overseen by dieticians and quality food substances are used. We also have family and resident input into the menus.”
ACCV has also refuted the article’s claim that the figures reported were sourced from a “leaked” Bentley’s Chartered Accountants survey.
Bentley’s has backed ACCV confirming that the data was not leaked. It said that the figures were taken from the National Aged Care Survey published in 2009, and provided to 350 facilities and the government earlier this year.
Bentley’s said that although the figure of $5 was accurate, there was more to the dietary cost than meets the eye.
It said that the $5 expenditure only represents the cost of food and does not take into account the cost to prepare food (which could include paying a supplier preparation or catering costs) or the fact that food could be bought in bulk.
Bentley’s director, Heath Shonhan said: “As with most averages within the survey, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions around the numbers as it provides the averages across the line items only and is open to interpretation without taking into account the varying circumstances.
“For those that have food costs only – some are part of a larger group that have purchasing agreements with suppliers across their group and therefore costs for some items may be subsidised.
“Without drilling down into the data, it is difficult to draw a line of what the cost of catering is per resident, per day within aged care facilities.
“The intention of the data is to give facilities a yardstick by which they can assess their own expenditure.
“The quoting of hours of care staff is correct. The undersupply of nursing care in the sector has been an issue for some time. As well as facing wage pressures, a lot of operators (particular in rural areas) also face skills shortages.”
ACCV is expected to send a letter to the editor of the paper to explain its side of the story in defence of nursing homes throughout the state and the aged care sector as whole.
