Reform and reverberation: Australian aged care policy changes and the unintended consequences for allied health
Tracks
Harbour View 1
Best practice
Evidence Based Policy
Health Management
Models of Care
| Thursday, November 14, 2024 |
| 2:00 PM - 2:15 PM |
Speaker
Prof Diane Gibson
Distinguished Professor
University Of Canberra
Reform and reverberation: Australian aged care policy changes and the unintended consequences for allied health
Abstract
Background
Allied health has a valuable role in providing services to people living in residential aged care. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety included several important recommendations relating to the nursing, personal care and allied health workforce and the care that they provide. This presentation reviews these recommendations, the subsequent policy responses and the unintended consequences.
Methods
Data from the four available Quarterly Financial Reports from the 2022-2023 financial year were extracted and analysed in relation to staff costs and time per person per day across personal care, nursing and allied health workers.
Results
The analysis shows a modest increase in median registered nurse minutes per person per day across the reporting periods. By contrast, median time and cost for allied health declined. From 5.6 minutes per person per day in the first quarter, reported allied health minutes fell to 4.6 minutes per person per day in the second quarter, an 18% decrease, and by the fourth quarter was 4.3 minutes per person per day. This is just over half the Australian average of 8 minutes reported to the RCACQS in 2019.
Conclusions
While providers of residential aged care in Australia continue to employ and value allied health, we argue that mandating care minutes for personal and nursing care without mandating the provision of allied health creates a perverse incentive whereby access to allied health services is unintentionally reduced.
Allied health has a valuable role in providing services to people living in residential aged care. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety included several important recommendations relating to the nursing, personal care and allied health workforce and the care that they provide. This presentation reviews these recommendations, the subsequent policy responses and the unintended consequences.
Methods
Data from the four available Quarterly Financial Reports from the 2022-2023 financial year were extracted and analysed in relation to staff costs and time per person per day across personal care, nursing and allied health workers.
Results
The analysis shows a modest increase in median registered nurse minutes per person per day across the reporting periods. By contrast, median time and cost for allied health declined. From 5.6 minutes per person per day in the first quarter, reported allied health minutes fell to 4.6 minutes per person per day in the second quarter, an 18% decrease, and by the fourth quarter was 4.3 minutes per person per day. This is just over half the Australian average of 8 minutes reported to the RCACQS in 2019.
Conclusions
While providers of residential aged care in Australia continue to employ and value allied health, we argue that mandating care minutes for personal and nursing care without mandating the provision of allied health creates a perverse incentive whereby access to allied health services is unintentionally reduced.
Biography
Diane Gibson PhD DBA(HEM) FASSA GAICD
Diane Gibson holds the position of Distinguished Professor (Health and Ageing) at the University of Canberra, where she is the Director of the Centre for Ageing Research and Translation (CARAT), a multi-disciplinary team engaged in an array of innovative intervention-based projects. Professor Gibson’s own work has a particular emphasis on the interface between research, policy and practice. She was previously the Inaugural Dean of the Faculty of Health at the University , and is a former Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing (ACT).
Professor Gibson has also made significant national contributions to the development of ageing related research, policy and practice. She developed the residential aged and community care data collections at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and produced a wide range of reports on ageing related topics from 1993 to 2008. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the AAG, a Board Member of the AAG, a previous Editor-in-Chief of the Australasian Journal on Ageing and has served on a variety of local and national committees for the AAG over the past 35 years.
Session Chair
Suanne Lawrence
Lecturer
University of Tasmania
