Adequate regulation and surveillance of residential aged care homes has become a high profile issue this year with media attention focused on the failure to care adequately for elderly, vulnerable residents – sometimes with catastrophic consequences for those residents and their families.

In response, the Government initiated a review of National Aged Care Quality Regulation Processes earlier this year. The Review panel reported in October.

The report has many recommendations, including to oblige aged care providers to make residents and their carers aware of their rights and responsibilities, make complaints processes easier to navigate, make the outcomes of complaints processes more transparent to the public, and unannounced audits, rather than pre-arranged audits, of aged care facilities for the purposes of better being able to assess the degree to which the facility complies with accreditation standards.

We sincerely hope the Government will accept these recommendations for the peace of mind of aged people and their families and carers.

Read The Charter of Care Recipients Rights and Responsibilities – Residential Care

Read The Charter of Recipients Rights and Responsibilities – Home Care

See more information about how to make a complaint to the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner