If you want a bit more background on the complete disaster in aged care in Victoria (a fed govt responsibility) then let's revisit this thread I did in early 2019 covering the last seven or so years of aged care policy. Short answer: the sector was already on its knees pre-Covid. https://twitter.com/SquigglyRick/status/1093287663170244608

I knew. They knew. Everyone knew (except ABC FactCheck for some reason??). This isn't a shock to anyone who has paid even scant attention to aged care policy in recent years. But the commonwealth would very much like you to forget.

And of course, now we have a figure. The aged care royal commission estimates the sector needs at LEAST an extra $13 billion each year. Possibly $26bn. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/health/2020/07/04/young-people-with-disabilities-still-living-aged-care/159378480010063

More money is needed, obviously, but the commonwealth has also ignored years' worth of evidence (including in its commission workforce report released late 2018) that it means sweet FA if there are not the required number of skilled, well paid nurses and care staff on site 24/7.

For context, here are the emergency staff provided by the Commonwealth to ONE nursing home (Newmarch) in the middle of a Covid-19 outbreak. There 95 extra staff provided on a roster to deal with the emergency. Most of them agency hire. 95!

Scott Morrison is up now talking about aged care. “We have always been very aware of those who have been most vulnerable in our community. These days we know, aged care has changed. It’s one of the reasons I called the royal commission.”

Morrison says people are moving into aged care at a “much more advanced stage” of care. Makes you wonder why they decided to cut the funding for complex healthcare and severe behaviours under the Aged Care Funding Instrument in 2015 and 2016. Frailty up, funding down.

He says these aged care stories are “very distressing”.

“The good news is, broadly across the aged care system in Victoria we have been able to avoid those distressing scenes.”

“We are aware of the problems that have occurred and more importantly (we) are taking action,” Morrison says. We’ve been aware of these problems for over a decade at the most generous reading.

Morrison says the most affected homes have moved to a more “in patient care” model more akin to a hospital. Thus they require more skilled nurses. Remember, they were like this ~before~ Covid. Hospitals funded $1300 per bed per day. Aged care? $290.

Morrison says 150,000 aged care staff have done infection control training during pandemic. There are more than 360,000 aged care workers, however.

A minor point, but once again I must insist we don’t use the phrase “decant” when talking about moving people out of institutions and into hospital care.

Brendan Murphy says “there has not been a case” where someone who needed or requested care of someone in aged care was not accepted into hospital. Hmmmm. See below. https://twitter.com/SquigglyRick/status/1286831350142533632?s=20 https://twitter.com/squigglyrick/status/1286831350142533632

By the way, that “extensive training” Murphy refers to that fewer than half of aged care workforce has completed cost $44,000 to commission. Commonwealth has spent more on sandwiches.

Anyway I’m meant to be working on a completely different story at the moment but this is really important and it’s been bugging me for years.

Confirmation that the Royal Commission will specifically examine the aged care sector response to Covid-19 outbreaks in hearings from August 10-13.