Push for Aged Care Reform - Australia

Push for aged care reforms
Pia Akerman February 08, 2008


THE federal Government will press the states to stop doctors with financial interests in nursing homes from signing death and cremation certificates for their residents after a coroner yesterday attacked the practice.

Jagdish Saraf could face disciplinary action after South Australian Coroner Mark Johns ruled he had acted inappropriately by signing both certificates, asking his wife to co-sign, for a woman who died in their nursing home, without notifying the Coroner of the death.
Gladys Wells, 71, died from undetermined causes on July 18 last year at the Brighton Aged Care Nursing Home, in Adelaide's southern suburbs.
The federal Department of Health and Ageing had sanctioned the facility two months earlier after an "immediate and severe risk" to residents' safety, health or wellbeing was found.
A department spokeswoman said "urgent" action was under way to determine Dr Saraf's suitability to provide aged care.

Ageing Minister Justine Elliot said state laws should be changed to prohibit doctors with financial interests in nursing homes signing residents' death and cremation certificates. She will ask Attorney-General Robert McClelland to raise the matter with state governments.
Nursing staff found Wells in her bed in an "unusual" position - as though she was kneeling on all fours - and reported her death to Dr Saraf, Wells's doctor and co-owner of the nursing home.
Mr Johns found Dr Saraf had an obligation to report the death to the Coroner because of the position Wells was found in. Dr Saraf told the inquest he would have reported the death if he had known about Wells's position, which he learned of two days after her cremation.
Mr Johns said the co-signature of Madhu Saraf on the cremation certificate was "at least undesirable if not professionally inappropriate".


SOURCE: theAustralianNews
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Step in the right direction. Hard to believe though, that two months before the incident, the facility was "...sanctioned after an immediate and severe risk" to residents' safety, health or well being was found. Yet, the facility continued to operate. WHY?
Aged care is an important issue for all levels of government. A better approach is for a uniform law on aged care. STOP THE BLAME GAME.