The Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley opened question time on Tuesday with a question for the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
"If the now Health Minister (Mark Butler) said in March 2022, when there were 60,000 Australians on the home care waiting list, the situation was 'a national disgrace', what words would the Prime Minister use to describe the list today, when 87,000 are waiting for their correct level of home care?
The Prime Minister dodged the question, responding that Labor passed with bipartisan support the most significant reforms to aged care "this century", and following Labor reforms, 99% of the time there is a nurse in an aged care home.
(This statistic is often quoted by Labor, but always carefully phrased. It avoids the fact that only 95% of aged are homes are complying with their 24/7 RN requirement. Or that only 75% are meeting RN care minute targets.)
After the Prime Minister spoke, the Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing, Mark Butler (right), responded. He said that over the last five years the Government has doubled the number of Home Care Packages released from 150,000 to more than 300,000.
On Wednesday, Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie (left), the Member for Mayo, who has long been outspoken about aged care, raised concerns in parliament about increasing co-payments for personal care. She said some of her constituents are being shown indicative prices for Support at Home that are nearly double current prices and some services people have been receiving for years will no longer be covered.
She said the decision to defer the release of 83,000 Home Care Packages was a "great disappointment" and could lead to people dying at home prematurely. She also said delays are being exacerbated by long wait times for assessments and that resorting to assessment by telehealth is "unlikely to deliver the best outcomes for older people, particularly those with more complex needs".
"We are not doing right by older Australians in terms of the current waitlist for home care packages and the enormous unknown volume of people just waiting to be seen," she said.
"My constituents Valerie and Peter have been trying since April to secure a reassessment for Peter as his needs have changed markedly since his initial aged-care assessment in 2021. Despite growing urgency, their family's concerted efforts to contact My Aged Care and the assessment provider every week or two and support from my office, they've only just secured a telephone reassessment for Peter this week, three months later. It's unreasonable for families to have to advocate to this extent simply to secure an assessment date. We're not talking about the actual package; we are talking about someone conducting the assessment on a person, particularly when their needs change. Peter's family say there were advised by My Aged Care to book respite care for Peter in October without having an assessment conducted and approval in place. This was not tenable since they were told it would be costing $600 per day, compared with $40 to $60 per day if he had an assessment and approval for respite."
