Our nursing homes in turmoil
By Rachel Browne
May 31, 2009
COMPLAINTS about nursing homes have tripled in a year, with authorities investigating serious cases of physical and sexual abuse as well as referring more than 30 deaths to the coroner.
The Department of Health and Ageing's Complaints Investigation Scheme (CIS) looked at almost 7500 complaints in 2007-08.
Of these, 1770 matters were referred to the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency for further investigation, 62 to nurses registration boards, 53 to the police, 33 to the coroner, 27 to the Health Care Complaints Commission and 13 to the Medical Practitioners Board.
Of the referrals to the coroner, seven occurred in NSW, 22 in Victoria, one in Queensland and three in South Australia.
This marks a significant increase from 2006-07, when the CIS and its predecessor, the Aged Care Complaints Resolution Scheme, examined 2399 complaints. In 2005-06, the scheme received 1260 complaints.
However, aged care lobby groups say the complaints handling system for Australia's 2830 nursing homes is seriously flawed and the public is denied information about the outcomes of investigations.
The Department of Health and Ageing will identify nursing homes that have been the subject of an official sanction or a notice of non-compliance.
The name-and-shame list will appear on a Department of Health and Ageing website from July 1.
But Aged Care Crisis Team spokeswoman Lynda Saltarelli said the information would be more than a year old and would relate only to a small number of homes subject to complaints.
"We would like to see a transparent system where a consumer can look at a nursing home and find out the type of ownership and structure; whether it has been the subject of failing standards as well as a complaint; the nature of the complaint; and what the provider did to address that complaint," Ms Saltarelli said.
There are 175,000 people in aged care facilities across the nation, a figure growing by 5000 a year.
Taxpayers subsidise the care of residents by an average of $45,000 a year, with residents contributing an average of $20,000 a year for care.
Over the next four years, the Government will invest more than $41.6 billion into aged and community care. During 2007-08 the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency conducted 5244 visits to homes, with 3105 visits unannounced. In this same period the Department of Health and Ageing undertook 3127 visits to homes, of which 1145 were unannounced.
he policy co-ordinator of the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW, Charmaine Crowe, said the increase in complaints revealed that people were more likely to come forward, but many complainants found their cases were not investigated thoroughly. "I know of one case which went to the department and was referred back to the nursing home. That complaint was very serious in nature. It should not have been referred back to the nursing home. That is simply unacceptable."
Elder Abuse Prevention Association founder Lillian Jeter said many cases of abuse or neglect were still going unreported.
Under changes to the law in 2007, it is mandatory for nursing home staff to report serious cases of physical or sexual abuse.
In 2007-08, there were 725 notifications of alleged unreasonable use of force and 200 allegations of alleged unlawful sexual contact.
However, nursing home staff are not obliged to report matters such as neglect, financial exploitation or psychological abuse.
"I think those three categories should come under mandatory reporting," Ms Jeter said.
"If you catch these so-called lesser types of incidents early, if you catch the neglect, the pyschological abuse or the financial exploitation, you are more likely to prevent the more serious types of incidents from happening. There needs to be a zero-tolerance policy."
The Aged Care Crisis Team is also calling for mandatory staff-to-resident ratios. "Hospitals, schools and child-care centres must adhere to set staffing levels. Why are facilities which provide end-of-life care exempt?" Ms Saltarelli said.
