Ross Gittins clearly elucidates the problem with aged care in Australia. His solution is fraught with difficulty.
I worked as a general practitioner in an aged care institution on Australia Day. It was hot and the rooms were not air-conditioned and some of my patients were suffering near heatstroke. Many people there had little in the way of assets but a few have had their assets stripped by their avaricious children who sold the family home and invest the money after obtaining a power-of-attorney. They render their elderly parents impecunious by liquidating the family home thereby throwing them on to the taxpayer for care in aged care institutions and maximising their take when the inheritance comes around.
There needs to be a plan where everybody contributes to their eventual placement in aged care facilities so that standards are maintained and the true cost is borne by the whole community.
2 comments:
It may be worth looking at the Productivity Commission's draft report whcih can be found at http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/aged-care/draft
It is 547 pages and has a lot of detail. The comment "There needs to be a plan where everybody contributes to their eventual placement in aged care facilities so that standards are maintained and the true cost is borne by the whole community." is partially covered (I think) in the report.
I do agree with the comment "It was hot and the rooms were not air-conditioned and some of my patients were suffering near heatstroke." So many older homes have no airconditioning or it is only available in very few areas of the home. Other conditions are not ideal either. Changing the conditions are not easy as many of the owners are either not interested or somehow unaware of how this impacts on the patients/residents. There are significant numbers of homes where conditions have improved markedly over the past five to ten years and it is important that somehow the unacceptable ones are improved as well.
Post a Comment