On 20 January 2021, the section on Aged Care Services (Part F, Section 14) of the Productivity Commission's
Report on Government Services 2021 was released.
The report showed that we are using our ACAT/ACAS professionals for ever more assessments of people who are not actually using those assessments.
The report showed that, in 2019-20, just 42% of the persons assessed by ACATs as eligible to enter permanent residential aged care actually entered within three months of their assessment. This is down from 70% in 2011/12. This fall in persons entering can NOT be because they can’t find a place; there have never been more empty beds in residential aged care services or a lower occupancy rate. It is expected that the massive growth in availability of high care home care, plus many other positive Commonwealth and private-sector initiatives - including transitional care, short-term restorative care, enhanced respite care availability, self-funded care and better home care delivery into retirement living activities – are all helping persons delay, defer or avoid residential care admission.
The question to be asked is, why are we assessing so many people who do not enter our residential aged care services? Fully 41% of the assessed persons have still not entered permanent residential aged care at nine months after assessment. (Down from just 11% in 2011/12.) Why not only assess those who are actually entering or need to enter permanent residential aged care and thus reduce the caseload on the ACATs and, accordingly, shorten the assessment waiting times for all?
Let’s put in a quick and simple assessment process for immediate entry to emergency or short-term residential respite to meet all urgent needs and then seek to guarantee to get a permanent assessment done within the timeframe of a standard emergency respite period – two or three weeks – for any and all persons seeking permanent admission.
