Aged care: Finally an election issue

The conversation finally turned to aged care leading up to the election when our political spokespeople for aged care turned up to a debate organised by The Campaign for Care for Older Australians.

Federal Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot, Liberals Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and the Greens Health and Ageing spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert all spoke about the future of aged care.

As a registered nurse I was disappointed that there was no clear promise to reduce the aged care wages gap and enforce minimum staffing ratios in residential aged care. Whilst we enforce ratios in child care, registered nurses are still expected to deliver care for up to 40 frail residents at a time.

Our residents are getting frailer and their care more complex. However, experienced nursing staff in aged care is dwindling. If the government wants to keep older people out of hospital they could start by ensuring extra funding to aged care providers is directed toward adequately staffing, training and rewarding aged care nurses! 

If you want to hear what our politicians had to say about aged care and more importantly leave a comment see: The Grand Plan