Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Council of the Ageing NT CEO Sue Shearer responds to aged care reforms

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Council of the Ageing NT CEO Sue Shearer responds to aged care reforms · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But let me take you across to another issue that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: has well and truly been on the agenda for quite
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: some time around the Northern Territory, and that is well
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: aged care and making sure that we've got enough beds.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: When it comes to age care, we know that age
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  Speaker 1: care facilities have now moved to a new funding model
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  Speaker 1: which is based on their level of needs. Now it's
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  Speaker 1: all in an effort to overhaul the system following a
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  Speaker 1: Royal commission into the sector. Joining me on the line
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  Speaker 1: to tell us more about the situation is Sue Shira,
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  Speaker 1: the CEO of Kota, the Council of the Aging here
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Sue, Hi Katie. You nice to hear your dulced
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: tones again.
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  Speaker 1: Lovely to hear yours as well. Now, Sue, tell me
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about these changes that have come into
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  Speaker 1: play when it comes to age care facilities moving to
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  Speaker 1: that new funding models.
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  Speaker 2: Probably it's an overview, really, it's not. I'd like to
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  Speaker 2: say it's a really complete new model, but it's just
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: in Gibson DRAMs like the facilities get paid a certain
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: amount each day of care for a patient in their facilities.
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  Speaker 2: So it's like it was two hundred and sixteen dollars
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  Speaker 2: and eighty cents. It's now about two hundred and twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: But this supposedly, I mean you can add that up yourself.
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  Speaker 2: That's at the most probably not even ten dollars. So
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  Speaker 2: it supposedly better matches a resident care and needs and
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  Speaker 2: it's a more equable distribution of funds across the residential
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  Speaker 2: age care sector, but it's still a pittance. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: and also later on that they'll have to have a
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  Speaker 2: nurse ont at actually in the age care facility, which
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  Speaker 2: is good, but then i'd say where the nurse is
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  Speaker 2: going to come from. You probably heard that the Morrison
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: government had a secret report that they were going to
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  Speaker 2: be one hundred thousand workers short in the age sector.
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  Speaker 2: Kept that under wraps. I mean, that's what the age
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  Speaker 2: you know, that's what the Royal Commission when it first
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  Speaker 2: came out said. Anyway, so I'm really quite disgusted that
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  Speaker 2: they keep those things under wrap. And really they hadn't
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  Speaker 2: made any changes to the age care that they had
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  Speaker 2: them there, but it wasn't important enough to bring them
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  Speaker 2: on to change. Oh and the partialization and the new
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  Speaker 2: government has which is good, but yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's disgraceful because you think to yourself,
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  Speaker 1: if you don't know exactly what the issues are and
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  Speaker 1: you're not prepared to be to be forward facing and
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  Speaker 1: upfront about them, how do you expect any change to
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  Speaker 1: come into play? And you know we're talking about age
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  Speaker 1: care places here. If you know, people have been paying
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  Speaker 1: their taxes their whole lives, they have been working their
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  Speaker 1: whole lives. They deserve to be able to have a
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  Speaker 1: place in age care if they need one.
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  Speaker 2: Oh exactly. And I don't really like being derogatory to governments,
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  Speaker 2: but the Morrison government just drip fed the age care
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: system for nine years. They're actually just dup fited. And
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  Speaker 2: to keep we knew what the problem was and that's
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  Speaker 2: what we mentioned in Royal Commission and supposedly keep it
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  Speaker 2: that report secret means we all knew and then again
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  Speaker 2: to sit on it and not do anything about it.
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  Speaker 2: They are entirely culpable for the shortage that we have now.
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  Speaker 2: And it's just absolutely beyond belief and actually blows my
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  Speaker 2: mind that you know, as I said, that drip fed
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  Speaker 2: and even now that's why we're in the crisis that
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: we're in.
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  Speaker 1: And so obviously, you know these changes that are now
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: going to come into play, they seem like they're going
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  Speaker 1: to be a good thing. I guess. So what we're
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  Speaker 1: still waiting for here in the Northern Territory is additional beds.
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  Speaker 1: We know that quite some time back when we'd interviewed
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  Speaker 1: the Chief Minister, Natasha Files when we're having well she
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  Speaker 1: was then the Health Minister, when we're having issues with
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  Speaker 1: the Code yellows and overcrowding at the hospitals, that there
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  Speaker 1: had been quite a bit of discussion about aged careas
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: being forced to stay in hospital because there were no
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  Speaker 1: other places for them. I believe that she'd said that
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  Speaker 1: there were sixty new beds or that we've got funding
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  Speaker 1: for sixty new beds. But how quickly do these need
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  Speaker 1: to roll out?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they're still actually, which does take time. I mean
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  Speaker 2: I commend them for doing that because a lot of
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  Speaker 2: dementia patients as well, or in Royal da In Hospital
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  Speaker 2: I had about sixty people. That's why the sixty beds.
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  Speaker 2: But again, some of those people with dementia will have
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  Speaker 2: to still have to stay in Royal da On Hospital
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  Speaker 2: because they are the age care facilities, no matter which
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  Speaker 2: ones they really just can't cope. Some of them are
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  Speaker 2: unfortunately rather aggressive, so it takes a specialized place to
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  Speaker 2: look after those people with that sort of aggressive dementia.
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  Speaker 2: But sixty at the TV still being built. But there
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  Speaker 2: is a dementia facility we believe being built out at
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  Speaker 2: Palmerston Hospital. I think that's still on the cards. Cade.
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  Speaker 2: I have to Dicheck that, you know, Katie, it's just
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  Speaker 2: a shame they were always catching up. Why can't we
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  Speaker 2: be proactive? We have had this problem, as I said,
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  Speaker 2: for a long time. It's the federal government is responsible
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  Speaker 2: for age care and they assume that people will have
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  Speaker 2: a home to age in. These people a lot of
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  Speaker 2: these people haven't got a home that we're in the
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  Speaker 2: Royal day On Hospital, so they can't go home and
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  Speaker 2: get an age care package. So they do need somewhere
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  Speaker 2: to stay. So the federal government has to realize that
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  Speaker 2: they are way behind the eight ball in supplying beds
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  Speaker 2: and also with the bed licensing system that age care
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  Speaker 2: facilities put in for beds and then they're allocated. We
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  Speaker 2: don't believe that should be it. Hopefully that the person
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  Speaker 2: who needs an agecare facility a bit like NDA is
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  Speaker 2: they will get the funding and they can pick where
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  Speaker 2: they want to go because at the moment they're just
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  Speaker 2: sitting around waiting for a bed to become ad Unfortunately,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: it's a high cost area and beds, you know, and
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  Speaker 2: I can't have two or three beds sitting vacant because
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  Speaker 2: there's no money coming in. After all, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: them are businesses. That's another discussion, Katie, whether they should
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  Speaker 2: be profitable businesses or not. But that's the way when
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  Speaker 2: it was privatized, John Howd privatized. That's the way it happens.
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  Speaker 2: There's quite a few more things that need to happen, Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Sounds that way, so well. Please keep us up to
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  Speaker 1: date as things do progress. We really appreciate your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning, as always, have a lovely, lovely day on
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  Speaker 1: this very wet territory morning.
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  Speaker 2: It is, it's come early, it's lovely. Actually, you don't
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  Speaker 2: mind at all. You take care Katie, you too.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Thanks Sue.