‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL HEALTH
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TOPICS:  FACES report on aged care, delays and deaths in aged care, ministerial responsibility, transparency

SEAL

The first of our baby boomers are turning 80 this year and the number of people aged over 80 is going to increase by 60 in e next 10 years.Well joining us live is Shadow Regional Health and Communications Minister Anne Webster.Anne great to see you as always.Hot off the press, you've got a release and you are very concerned about the Albanese government after one yearhe reforms are not up to scratch according to you.

WEBSTER
No, absolutely not. Well, it's Families for Aged Care Equity and Support who have put out their report and they've given the government a D overall and an F for safety for their aged care implementation. I don't know about you, I was never a D and an F student and I tell you what, the Albanese Labor government needs to wake up to itself. So they've had a year to sort out what they deemed a shameful, terrible neglect of older people, and it's actually worse, Jaynie. We have 6,423 people who have died while waiting for aged care in the last financial year. We've got 4,000 people sitting in hospital beds who no longer need to be in a hospital bed, but there aren't enough aged care residential beds for them. So while the government is so good at the spruiking, they're unbelievably bad at the actual detail and the management of our aged care system. I know in Victoria I have banged on about this for so long now that people who are frail, who maybe don't get out of bed very much, who fail to be able to cook their own meals or have a shower. Tthey are being assessed on the phone - ! on the phone - so no aged care professional is actually seeing what they're able to do in their own homes. Needless to say, many have been rated as not needing aged care support now. The Support at Home package and rollout is taking 10 months, once you're finally assessed, at least 10 months to actually receive any services. It is a debacle and Sam Rae is absolutely responsible for this mess and Mark Butler, his Senior Minister for Health and Aged Care.

S

Alright, well I've reached out to Labor but this release only came out just now so we haven't heard back yet, which is understandableut what do you want from the government?

WEBSTER

Oh, look, I think that they I think they absolutely need to deal with the algorithm and Anne Ruston, shadow minister for health and aged care, has tried to hold the department and hold them to account for the aged care rollout and the messes that we're seeing in real terms in Senate estimates this last week but what we need is transparency. We don't know how many older people are being assessed by phone, for example. I know in Victoria it's been widely reported that many, many, many people, whether it's Mansfield, whether it's in Mallee, are being assessed by phone. It is absolutely unacceptable. There should be professionals, occupational therapists, going out and doing the assessments in people's homes because that is where they need to be seen, how fit and frail they actually are. We need transparency about the numbers of beds actually being delivered by the federal government. We also need to know how many aged care facilities are viable but I think even more importantly, we need to know how many Support at Home people are have applied, have not been assessed, have not been approved and have not actually had any services delivered because when you know that 6,423 people have died in the last year while waiting for home care services to be provided, that is shameful. There is nothing else you can say about it. It is shameful.

SEAL

Yeah, we've certainly been looking into this and we appreciate you joining us and providing that fresh information. Anne Webster, thank you so much.

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