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Aged Care Funding Outrage
IRT CEO, Nieves Murray has today expressed outrage at the inadequate indexation of funding for aged care, announced by the Government yesterday.
“The Government announced yesterday that it was lifting funding for aged care for the 2011-2012 financial year by a paltry 1.9 per cent – only half the 3.9 per cent rise in inflation and way under the Consumer Price Index rise of 3.3 per cent over the last 12 months,” Ms Murray said.
The Aged Care Association of Australia has calculated that the increase amounts to $2.20 per resident per day – the price of a single banana.
“This 1.9 per cent increase flies in the face of rising prices for fuel, pharmaceuticals and vegetables, which jumped 16 per cent in the last quarter alone,” Ms Murray said.
“When combined with no additional funding for aged care in the Federal budget, current funding for aged care services falls well short of increases in costs for providers.”
Ms Murray said this latest announcement compounds the long term underfunding of the aged care sector and may make aged care unsustainable.
“This increase will do nothing to stop the erosion of community care hours, nothing to help pay adequate wages to our valued staff and nothing to encourage providers to ‘hang in there’ in order to provide quality care services for our ever-increasing aged population.”
The gap between the real costs of wage increases and the Federal funding supporting the aged care sector continues to widen.
“The recent Fair Work Australia decision calls for a 3.4% minimum increase for care workers and we support the need for increased wages to attract and retain staff, particularly in light of our ageing population and the increased incidence of dementia,” Ms Murray said.
“But how are we supposed to pay for this increase when the Government continues to reduce our funding in real terms?
“We recognise that the Productivity Commission is looking at funding reform for the aged care sector as part of its enquiry, however we need to sustain the industry in the meantime, so that services can be maintained,” she said.
As Australia’s largest not-for-profit community based aged care provider, IRT is committed to providing seniors with care and services that enable them to achieve their optimum quality of life.
“We are fortunate that our business is sustained by its diversity; our popularity as a seniors lifestyle provider and our reputation as an aged care and hospital catering company continue to support our care centres,” Ms Murray said.
“Without these parts of our business, we would be unable to continue to provide care and services to almost 6000 seniors in NSW and the ACT.”
While IRT may survive the current funding impost, there are concerns that the future sustainability of the sector will fall victim to Federal Government funding decisions that kick a much-needed industry when it is down.
“I am calling on the Government to face up to the realities of aged care in this country and increase funding levels at least in line with the cost of living,” Ms Murray said.
For further information please contact:
Deborah De Santis
Media Advisor
Mobile: 0403 121 651
