Aged Care Funding Needs More Scrutiny - Australian Nursing Federation

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 03 May 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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The Australian Nursing Federation welcomed today's news that the Federal Government is planning a crackdown on the use of accommodation bonds by aged care providers.

Ged Kearney ANF national secretary said moves by the Federal Government to increase provider accountability through greater levels of reporting were a good first step in ensuring aged care consumers received high quality care.

However Ms Kearney called on the Government to go further and institute mechanisms that ensure openness and accountability in the way all public funds are spent in aged care.

"At the moment we know huge amounts of public money are poured into aged care, but we don't know how it is spent," she said.

"The Minister for Ageing Justine Elliott should put in place mechanisms to assess where the funding goes and whether the amount of funding is adequate for the care required by older Australians in nursing homes."

Ms Kearney said the ANF's Because We Care campaign will bring greater accountability to the industry and help clarify claims about funding made by aged care providers.

"On one side the providers of aged care say they are going broke and on the other hand the government says they are getting enough money, in the mean time nothing changes and older Australians and the nursing and care staff looking after them are struggling to continue to provide quality care," she said.

"Nursing staff in aged care tell the ANF they are concerned about the continued financial pressures on the care they give - pressure that constrains their ability to deliver the quality of care that older Australians deserve."

"What needs to be established is how the money is used and why providers cannot afford to give nursing staff fair wages and better working conditions."

Ged Kearney said the ANF Because We Care campaign is calling on government to recognize the work of Australia's highly skilled and dedicated aged care nursing and care staff and ensure they can deliver quality care into the future.

"What we desperately need is more nursing staff, the right mix of worker skills across the aged care sector, and of course, greater accountability for funding," she said.

The ANF, representing nearly 170,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in Australia.

Source
Australian Nursing Federation

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