Australia is to launch a national inquiry into its scandal-plagued elderly care sector, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday, following numerous reports of abuse, neglect and mismanagement.
The announcement came a year after a state-run dementia nursing home in South Australia state was shut down when an investigation revealed horrific mistreatment of older residents over a 10-year period.
Since that scandal, the Australian Department of Health has closed almost one aged care service each month, while a growing number are failing to meet standards, Morrison said in a statement.
“Incidences of older people being hurt by failures of care simply cannot be explained or excused,” he said.
“We must be assured about how widespread these cases are,” he said. “There clearly remain areas of concern with regard to the quality and safety of aged care services.”
The inquiry is to probe profit and not-for-profit organizations, and also look at the care given to younger Australians with disabilities living in such facilities.
There has been a 177 percent leap in the number of elderly care homes where a “serious risk” to residents was identified in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, government data released to Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph showed.
The figures also showed a 292 percent increase in the number of facilities that were falling significantly short of government regulations.
Morrison said that the royal commission would be critical in guiding how Australia copes with caring for its growing elderly population.
Demand for services is expected to surge as the baby boomer generation born after World War II swells the ranks of retirees.
Canberra’s funding for elderly care is already at record levels, reaching A$18.6 billion (US$13.3 billion) this fiscal year. The government expects it to grow by a further A$5 billion in the next five years.
About one in seven Australians were aged 65 and above last year, government data showed, with the proportion of elderly people tipped to reach 22 percent of the population by 2057.
A damning 146-page report released in February catalogued numerous complaints of abuse and neglect at elderly care facilities.
Some of the worst cases raised included a 70-year-old who was attacked and killed by another elderly resident, the use of restraints, overdosing of patients and the indecent assault of a 99-year-old woman by a male carer.
Earlier this month, a carer in Sydney was charged with assaulting an elderly man by pulling his shirt and hitting him repeatedly with a shoe.
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