Page 1143 - Week 04 - Thursday, 17 March 2005
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government, quite rightly, said, “Well, okay. If you have got something for us to investigate, please come forward”. Somebody in the industry supposedly saying that certain things were being done makes it very hard for any authority to investigate. I have gone out and spoken to a number of the providers of both large and small organisations or premises, and they have assured me that it does not happen in their facilities.
Canberra is a fairly tight-knit community and, in general, word gets around. In the aged care organisations, it is an even tighter and smaller community. The general impression I got was that most people did not believe this was going on. Having a report that says it is going on, without clear examples to back it up, makes it hard for the authorities, whether they be commonwealth or ACT, to investigate. If people have examples or occurrences of retribution going on, I think it is important they come forward so that the appropriate authority can then respond.
As the government report quite rightly points out, the aged care complaints resolution scheme is in place. Perhaps more could be done to acquaint residents of these facilities and all Canberrans with the scheme so that people are aware of the service and know how to contact it. When you are getting on, it can be a bit difficult and almost tedious to do this but I think it is important to make sure that older Canberrans and their families know that the service exists and that there are acts that cover them and protect them. It is important that we get the evidence brought forward so that we can assure people that, where there are acts of retribution occurring in the community, they are stamped out, as they should be.
The second recommendation was that the government undertake a comprehensive survey of all aged care providers. As Dr Foskey points out, the government’s comment is that it would entail a significant investment in time and energy from aged care providers, but I would be fairly certain that most aged care providers already know exactly what it is they are doing. We are not asking them to provide an essay of what they are doing. We are just saying, “Which are the services that you provide and which are the services that you don’t provide?” In some ways, it could almost be a multiple-choice form where you tick: “Do you provide podiatry?” “Yes or no”. “Where do you get your podiatry services from?”
I am not convinced by the government’s argument that it may take a lot of time and effort from the point of the providers. I have spoken to a lot of the providers and they are very concerned about lack of access for some of their patients to services such as seeing their doctor. How do we get older Canberrans, particularly the frail and infirm and those who are not as mobile as the rest of us, to visit to their GP? Over the years many of the facilities have had good local doctors who have been able to visit, but the number who do that now seems to be declining. So access to a doctor, to a dentist, to simple services like that, gets to be more and more difficult. I think the interest among aged care providers in participating in the survey would be pretty high, because they are already telling us that there are gaps. The gaps are getting bigger and they are not convinced that, in the future, they will be able to provide the services that these people absolutely deserve. As you get older, you need more and more access.
The government’s response notes that there is the health action plan. We might have even passed the third anniversary of the health forum, which spawned the health action plan. It is interesting that the government notes what the priorities of the health action
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