|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 Home News General
Funding System for Aged Care Facilities Should be Overhauled15 November 2003The Health Services Union has called for immediate action to overhaul the funding system used in aged care facilites after further evidence of the scale of the problems with the current system. The Department of Health and Ageing's annual report revealed that nursing homes were forced to pay back $30 million last financial year after being found to have incorrectly classified residents. The HSU national secretary Craig Thomson said the union had repeatedly pointed out the flaws in the current Resident Classification Scale (RCS) which was open to error and tied up staff in hours of paperwork. It has also been found to be severely flawed by an inquiry and even the former minister Kevin Andrews acknowledged it put too much pressure on staff who have to undertake the assessments that determine the funding levels for each resident. Mr Thomson said the system also encouraged unscrupulous managers to push staff to incorrectly classify residents and builds in no incentives to improve the health of residents. "The sicker residents get the more money a facility gets," Mr Thomson said. "The RCS also asks what is being provided but not what is required for quality care. "There is no way of determining what proportion of the money that is committed to an individual facility will be spend on the care of residents. The HSU's aged care policy calls for the RCS to be scrapped and the introduction of a new funding system which is based in part on the establishment of a national benchmark of quality care. That benchmark was recommended by the Productivity Commission in 1999. It would be able to define and cost the provision of quality aged care services in different regions. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU) |
|
