The Federal Government’s Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2021 has passed the Senate with amendments forcing aged care homes to have a Registered Nurse on site at all times.
Independent Senator Rex Patrick last night amended the bill to include the 24/7 registered nurse requirement, said it was “too important” to delay.
The amendment goes beyond the Government’s commitment to require a nurse to be on site in all aged care homes for 16 hours a day by July 1, 2022, as recommended by the Royal Commission.
Centre Alliance Senator Stirling Griff also amended the bill to require the Commonwealth Department of Health to make public aged care providers’ financial reports and statements.
As The SOURCE reported, the Bill – announced in August 2021 – includes a number of Royal Commission recommendations taken up by the Morrison Government including:
- The Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC);
- Aged care and support worker regulation including pre-employment screening for aged care workers and governing persons of approved providers and a code of conduct for approved providers, workers and board directors;
- Extending the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) to home care from 1 July 2022;
- Increasing governance requirements from 1 March 2022 including providing an annual statement on their operations that will be made publicly available and a requirement to notify the Quality and Safety Commission of changes to key personnel
- The establishment of the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority.
A spokesman for Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and Aged Care, said the Government supported the Royal Commission’s recommendation to mandate 24/7 nurses in aged care by July 2024, but to force the change now “would lead to potentially catastrophic closures.“
The Federal Government does have the numbers to overrule the changes in the House of Representatives, to deal with the bill before Parliament concludes ahead of the election.
The Government will not have time for a second attempt at passing the bill through the Senate, which will be devoted to Estimates hearings for the rest of this sitting period.
