Royal Commission special report into Aged Care and COVID-19

Our team has reviewed the report and make the following comments for Aged Care Providers.

The six recommendations

The Report makes six recommendations and the Australian Government has already announced that it will accept all recommendations. The recommendations are:

1. The Australian Government should report to Parliament by no later than 1 December 2020 on the implementation of these recommendations.
2. The Australian Government should immediately fund providers that apply for funding to ensure that there is adequate staff available to allow continued visits to people living in residential aged care by their families and friends.
3. The Australian Government should urgently create Medicare Benefits Schedule items to increase the provision of allied health services, including mental health services, to people in aged care during the pandemic. Any barriers, whether real or perceived, to allied health professional being able to enter residential aged care facilities should be removed unless justified on public health grounds.
4. The Australian Government should establish a national aged care plan for COVID-19, including establishing a national aged care advisory body and protocols about transfers to hospital for COVID-19 positive residents.
5. All residential aged care homes should have one or more trained infection control officers as a condition of accreditation. The training requirements for these officers should be set by the national aged care advisory body referred to in Recommendation 4.
6. The Australian Government should arrange with the States and Territories to deploy accredited infection prevention and control experts into residential aged care homes to provide training, assist with the preparation of outbreak management plans and assist with outbreaks.

Implications for Providers

• The majority of the recommendations propose more Government action in the sector, although Providers are charged with the responsibility of appointing/maintaining infection control officers. The Royal Commission also made a finding that training around the use of protective personal equipment (PPE) should be a core responsibility of Providers.
• Continued visitation was essential, even amidst the pandemic, with a balance to be struck between limiting the likelihood of an outbreak and ensuring residents can receive visitors. Providers are expected to do more to facilitate visits where this can occur without appreciable risk. The lack of community transmission in Western Australia means that the balance referred to by the Royal Commission will inevitably favour visitation over restrictions. The Royal Commission noted that visitation should be humane and proportionate to risk, even during periods of community transmission. Providers will not simply be able to restrict visits because it is more expedient than facilitating safe visits.
• Changes to the Industry Code for Visiting Aged Care are likely to follow to allow for increased and more meaningful visits to residents.
• A nationally-led approach should hopefully eliminate the lack of transparency around changes to the Directions that have occurred in Western Australia.
• Whilst the Royal Commission made a number of findings about the inability/difficulties for providers to manage COVID-19 positive residents in situ, it would not go as far as to suggest automatic transfer of positive residents to hospitals, although it did cite evidence in the report from experts that this was the safest means of protecting other residents.

Click here to read the report.

If you would like more information or have any questions, our Aged Care team would be happy to help.