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Abbott & Morrison at the core of Aged Care Disasters, page-51

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billybongo

27,332 Posts.

05/08/20

06:42

Post #: 46305635
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Originally posted by Lapdog ↑

@fazz03; personal experience and my most recent research traces the crisis in our $For $Profit aged care system back to changes that John Howard's Government made in 1997 - 'cutting red tape' and relaxing the rules applying to aged care property owners which enabled them to focus more on $Profits and way less on residents' care.

As for the red tape created from those poor souls needing 'aged care' - having been through that process with my Mum and watching what the system did to people once they were admitted I long ago concluded that our federally funded aged care system is an indelible stain on Australia's humanitarian record.

What followed included Abbott as Health Minister and then as PM, Morrison as a Minister and later as Treasurer and now PM - it could hardly have worked out worse from a health perspective.

"... Before the Howard government’s 1997 Aged Care Act, federal government funding to aged care facilities for each resident was determined on the level of care they needed and was divided into funds for professional care, nutrition and administration. Following the new act funding became a lump sum payment, so the facilities had more ability to decide how to allocate funds and so adjust profits. Staffing levels reduced as the requirement for regulated levels, especially qualified nurses, was eliminated, and it being the area where huge savings could be made, another area was food. ..."
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/abbott-complicit-in-ignoring-aged-care-problems-20200804-p55iik.html

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Of course Rudd and Gillard fiddled too.
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...mentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook44p/AgedCare
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