Opinion: It’s deja-vu for aged care services’ priority

Above: Gerard Mansour, CEO, Aged and Community Services Victoria (ACCV)

When will aged care be the priority?

The Commonwealth budget delivered on 10 May again failed to provide the much needed support for our aged care industry that cares for thousand of older or frail Victorians both in their own homes and in aged care homes. So now I ask; why it is so difficult for the needs of our frail older Australians to get to the top of the political agenda?

In a couple of weeks our Victorian aged care industry body will celebrate its fifth birthday since coming together as one association. Yet, each Federal Budget over these last five years has always had an alternate priority. This should be of great interest to our community.

Sadly, one fears that successive governments face the political dilemma that there may not be too many votes in making aged care a prominent issue. It could be that frail older

Australians are a bit too much ‘out of sight and out of mind’ for our community at large.

Like previous years, the 2011 Budget had other priorities which ranked ahead of aged care. The industry asked for modest short-term assistance while government considers a longterm reform agenda report by the Productivity Commission due to be released in July. Two small asks were the centrepiece: a modest indexation increase of 1.75 per cent and an increase of $10 per day as a short-term support for construction of aged care homes.

Neither was granted.

However, in the wash up of another Federal Budget, it is a good time to reflect on what lies ahead for frail older Australians who may wish to call upon the aged care industry. It is clear, under current policy settings, the industry cannot cater for the fact that the number of people needing access to aged care services will more than double in the next 20 years.

The data presents a compelling case that aged care needs to be ‘top of the pops’ in 2012. In its submission to the Productivity Commission, the Department of Health and Ageing estimates that our aged care industry will need to build 82,500 new aged care beds in the next decade as well as update ageing infrastructure. This additional cost is estimated to be more than $17 billion of capital funding. This indicates the magnitude and importance of changing government policy settings.

Against this backdrop, we have already seen a relative slowing in the industry building program on the national stage as there is a growing gap between funding and costs of construction. Last year when 8,000 residential aged care beds were offered nationally by the government, the industry only took up 5,600, a shortfall of nearly 30 per cent. This does not bode well.

Then consider that, from an in-home community care perspective, the failure to provide adequate annual funding increases to offset rising costs has resulted in a reduction, in real terms, of nearly 20 per cent in the hours of service delivered as in-home care.

Why is the plight of the aged care industry of importance to our community? Because it is our industry that aims to be there when older Australians, or their families, call for additional support either in their own home or in residential care homes.

There comes a time when many in our community cannot survive without additional support either in their home or a residential aged care home. But many Australians don’t want to think about, yet alone plan for, the reality they might need extra help and care when they are older and more frail. 

At the end of June, the Productivity Commission will release its long awaited final report into the aged care system – Caring for Older Australians. Most importantly the Productivity Commission has already confirmed what the industry has said for some time: the aged care system needs access to greater investment by government and older Australians. Government controls pricing, allocates places, regulates the industry and controls supply.

This is the time for our community to send a message to government that later this year they need to invest in aged care reform and that 2012 must be the aged care budget.

Gerard Mansour, CEO, Aged & Community Care Victoria