The restoration of trust between the community and aged care sector is a vital first step if much-needed reform is to be achieved.
Graeme Prior believes now is an exciting time to be involved in aged care, particularly in terms of the opportunity for sector reform.
The chief executive of aged care provider Hall & Prior, and member of the National Aged Care Advisory Council, said it was likely the reform journey started under the Coalition government would continue and accelerate under the Labor government of Anthony Albanese.
“There is no doubt that we have the ingredients for meaningful reform,” Mr Prior told Business News.
“We now have a new government that campaigned explicitly on aged care and has a mandate for implementing the recommendations of the royal commission. It’s all there.”
However, the troubled relationship between the aged care sector and the community – eroded by the blistering findings of the Aged Care Royal Commission and three years of consistently negative publicity – will need to be restored if Australia is to address key issues critical to the implementation of a world-class, high-quality, aged care system.
For example, one of the most pressing issues to be resolved is that of aged care system funding.
New modelling from UNSW Sydney suggests future aged care costs could easily be more than double what Treasury is predicting. Further, UNSW has concluded that aged care service funding on a universal entitlement basis will be financially unsustainable if we rely purely on consolidated tax revenue.
We know that an alternative funding solution for aged care services is required and that it is going to need to involve increased co-contribution by users as well a levy like that of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Does the political will of either party extend that far? Seemingly not, in the face of the trust deficit between the aged care sector and the community.
“Enormous damage has been wrought by the terrible stories emerging from the royal commission,” Mr Prior said.
“The aged care sector must now restore the trust of the Australian people over the next two or three years that it can safely, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, care for their loved ones.”
In the face of the work that needs to be done to rebuild trust and the promise of no new taxes during the election, it seems unlikely the Albanese government is going to go out on a limb for a difficult conversation with voters about co-contributions and levies.
Meaningful reform is also reliant on the energy and commitment of the aged care sector leadership. The pace of reform has been relentless over the past three years and will only increase.
In its first term, the new government is expected to continue the aged care reform program and deliver a new Aged Care Act, a new funding model, a new pricing authority, mandatory staff ratios and minimum care times.
My hope is that the government continues to recognise and prioritise the importance of aged care system reform and that the sector leadership can keep the faith and push through this next phase.
The risk of failure is not that the system could fail wholesale; that is unlikely. Rather, the risk is that the opportunity to emerge from the royal commission will not be realised because the community (and by extension its politicians) is not yet ready to have the more difficult conversations around age care system reform.
So yes, it sure is an exciting time to be in aged care but, as Mr Prior points out, it starts with trust.
“There must be a determination by all stakeholders in the sector and in government, federal, state and local at all levels to work together and to rebuild trust, transparency, openness, accountability,” he said.
Only once trust is restored will the compact between the Australian people, government and the aged care sector to deliver meaningful reform be realised.
For the sake of all elderly Australians and the sector that supports them, I very much hope this occurs, and soon.
• Amber Crosthwaite is a commercial lawyer specialising in seniors living, aged care and disability
