Aged home care services coming under federal watchdog's microscope

Finance management, fees and charges account for three out of the top five most complained about issues regarding aged care home service providers nationally.

More than one in three (36 per cent) failed to meet ongoing assessment and planning standards, which includes risks to aged care recipient's safety and well-being, being up to date with their needs, and reviewing services after a change or major incident.

And more than three quarters (76 per cent) did not have ample organisational governance in place, according to the latest quarterly performance report from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

The commission says it is 'watching' all providers 'all the time' to identify where there might be risks or failures through the constant scanning of information contained in mandatory reports, complaints, serious incident reports, audits and regulatory interactions.

Meanwhile in residential care, complaints about the number and sufficiency of staff is the third most complained about issue.

That is despite the fact that 91 per cent of nursing homes now have at least one registered nurse on-site and on duty 24/7,

Clinical issues are the most complained about, while the quality and variety of food and catering was the fourth most complained about issue in the third quarter of 2023/24.

More than one in five Hunter Central Coast residential care services are spending $10 or less per day per resident on fresh food, and some of those are spending less than $6 per day.

The federal government committed $2.2 billion to improve aged care in the 2024-25 budget, including $531.4 million to release an additional 24,100 Home Care Packages, $1.2 billion in critical digital systems to support the introduction of the new Aged Care Act and deliver a contemporary IT system, and $87.2 million for workforce initiatives to attract nurses and other workers into aged care.

Taxpayers are now subsidising aged care to a far great extent than five years ago, according to the fifth edition of Australia's Aged Care Sector Report released in June.

Authors of that report say that, despite the growth in government spending on aged care to $32.3 billion in 2023-24 (an increase of $12.6 billion since 2019-20), 50 per cent of residential aged care homes are operating at a loss and home care providers' margins have reached a new low of just $1.77 per client per day.