The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is appealing to the Government to increase the number of doctors and nurses in aged care homes, with new modelling.
They have released a new report with modelling showing that preventing admissions to hospitals from aged care homes could have saved up to $312 million in the 12 months to 30 June 2021.
The 43-page report – titled ‘Putting Health Care Back Into Aged Care’ – says $1.4 billion could be saved over four years in preventable admissions from residential care.
The AMA says it believed the admissions from aged care settings could be prevented through the better provision of primary care i.e. mandating minimum staff-to-resident ratios and 24/7 Registered Nurse coverage in residential care.
They also make 11 recommendations including increasing the Medicare rebates for aged care home attendances by GPs by 50%, and new MBS telehealth items for phone calls between the GP, aged care home staff and relatives – a cost of $643 million over four years to 2024-25 according to their estimates.
The report is part of the AMA’s wider campaign ahead of the Federal Budget and the Government’s full response to the Royal Commission’s recommendations – AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid has this impassioned opinion piece published in The Guardian this week arguing for the need to put more nurses into aged care homes.
You can read the report here.
