In the wake of last week’s damning Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s Interim Report, the Prime Minister has pledged to find funding for sector by Christmas.
Scott Morrison appeared on Macquarie Radio’s 3AW to declare that he will find the cash to tackle the issues of home care wait lists, chemical restraints and younger people in aged care homes.
“We will be making a response on those issues by the end of the year. One of the reasons I have been waiting for this report is because I wanted that it inform the final decisions we were going to make around in-home aged care funding before we finalise the mid-year update.”
Meanwhile the sector needs $2B in cash for the next 12 months or more aged care homes will ‘hand back the keys’ and home care operators will walk away.
Aged care experts told The Australian Mr Morrison will have to deliver at least $1.7 billion per year to fix the backlog of more than 100,000 Australians waiting to access home care packages alone.
Mr Morrison was left to address the issue by Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Richard Colbeck, who has been missing in action after issuing a statement on Friday.
