Major Aged Care Reforms in 2024: What to expect
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Weekly Wrap 13 July 2021

13/07/21
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Aged care news highlights from the week ending 13 July 2021, aggregated by CompliSpace.

The information in the Weekly Wrap is aggregated from other news sources to provide you with news that is relevant to the aged care sector across Australia and worldwide. Each paragraph is a summary of the subject matter covered in the particular news article. The information does not necessarily reflect the views of CompliSpace.


Coronavirus/COVID-19 News

 

Peaks, unions unite against government’s aged care vaccine ‘blame-shifting’

According to Aged Care Insite, Australia’s aged care peak bodies and unions have rallied together to demand the government take responsibility over the failed vaccine rollout. In a joint statement, the Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC) along with the ANMF, AWU, UWU, HSU, ASU and the ACTU, have called for the workforce to be urgently vaccinated with the "Pfizer vaccine only".

 

NSW Extension of hotspot – Greater Sydney

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, the Australian Government Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, has extended the Greater Sydney region COVID-19 hotspot for the purposes of Commonwealth support to 16 July 2021 for Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Shellharbour and Wollongong.

Declaring a hotspot for Commonwealth support triggers the following actions, if required, including:

  • access to PPE from the National Medical Stockpile for eligible aged care services
  • actions for aged care facilities including PPE, single site workforce supplement and integration of an aged care response centre into the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre
  • assistance with contact tracing
  • asymptomatic testing via General Practice Respiratory Clinics
  • reprioritisation of vaccine supplies, if required
  • access to COVID Disaster Payment, if eligibility criteria is met, including the state imposed lockdown runs for greater than 7 days.

Please note, single site workforce arrangements and activation of the Support for Aged Care Workers in COVID-19 remain in place until 24 July.

 

WA Health – further information on restrictions for RACF visitors

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, the WA Government announced that from 12.01am Tuesday 6 July 2021, WA Perth and Peel regions will return to transitional restrictions which mean residents are allowed up to four ‘care and support’ visitors per day. Masks are still required in all indoor environments.

For the full details of the Perth and Peel restrictions and the full list of exceptions to visitor restrictions for RACFs please see the Visitors to Residential Aged Care Facilities (Outbreak Restrictions (Transitional) Directions on the WA Health website.

 

Advice on interval between first and second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, in some cases, residents in aged care facilities have missed their second dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination. This may be due to, for example, being unwell on the day of the second dose in-reach clinic conducted by the Commonwealth’s vaccination teams.

Aged care facilities should work with their local Primary Health Network to organise a second Pfizer dose for these residents to occur within the recommended six week interval between first and second doses.

Where it is not possible to provide the second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dose within the recommended six week interval, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) advises that:

  • Residents who receive a first dose vaccine should receive the second dose.
  • It is recommended the second dose be administered within 3 to 6 weeks.
  • In circumstances where the interval is longer than 6 weeks, residents should still receive a second dose.
  • If the second dose is administered later than the recommended 6 week interval, no further doses (i.e. a third) are required.
  • There is no time limit between receiving the second dose, however residents are not fully protected until they have received their second dose.
  • It is important to reassure residents and their families that if the second Pfizer vaccination occurs outside of the six week interval, the resident’s level of protection after the second dose is unlikely to be compromised.

ATAGI further advises that data on the real-world effectiveness and duration of protection from the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, including against current and emerging strains (variants), will inform future recommendations regarding the need for and timing of booster doses for all Australians.

 

New Resident Entrance Protocol – COVID-19 vaccine program for aged care

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, it is vital that all residential aged care services establish processes to emphasise the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for new residents during the admission process. Ideally new residents should have received all required doses of a COVID-19 vaccine prior to admission.

It is also critical that all residential aged care services maintain records of the vaccination status of all residents and are able to provide this information in the event of an outbreak.

To assist, the Department has developed a protocol, the New Resident COVID-19 Vaccination Protocolfor RACF providers to support new residents to receive their COVID-19 vaccination, if supported by medical advice.

This protocol provides a flow chart for providers to assess each resident’s vaccination status and advice on how to commence their vaccination if not started. If they have received their first dose, it prompts providers to ensure residents receive their second dose within the required timeframe.

The protocol also includes links to information about COVID-19 vaccination available on www.Health.gov.au.

The New Resident Entrance Protocol will be available on the Department's website shortly.

 

Five residents at a Sydney aged care home test positive to Covid, two-thirds of staff unvaccinated

According to Aged Care Insite, two more residents at an aged care home in Sydney’s northwest have tested positive to Covid as fury grows about why unvaccinated staff were allowed to work there. There have now been five confirmed cases at the home, according to Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant.

 

Grants available to vaccinate staff

According to Australian Ageing Agenda, aged care providers can now apply for funding to support residential aged care staff to receive the now mandatory COVID-19 vaccine. The Federal Government committed $11 million last week to help residential aged care workers get vaccinated following National Cabinet’s decision to make it mandatory, with a first dose due by mid-September.

 

Calls for govt to speed up aged care vaccines

According to Australian Ageing Agenda, aged care peak body Leading Age Services Australia has called on the Federal Government to work with the residential aged care sector to ensure workers are vaccinated. The call comes as six aged residents and four staff have tested positive to date at SummitCare’s aged care home in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills, which reported a third of staff were vaccinated before the outbreak, however that figure has since been revised up to about half.

 

 

Other News

 

The workload required for an extra $10 per day per resident plus new home care packages released

According to The Weekly Source, the Federal Government’s new basic daily fee supplement, an extra $10 per day per resident, is now available to aged care providers who are willing to submit a detailed quarterly report (see above). The supplement is only available to approved providers who formally agree (via an undertaking) and submit the quarterly reports on food and nutrition expenditure and quality of daily living services.

 

NSW inquiry calls for staff ratios to ease ‘burden’ on the sector

According to Aged Care Insite, in early June the NSW Legislative Committee published its final inquiry into the issue of chronic understaffing in aged care facilities. It found, as did the royal commission, that mandated staffing ratios and more registered nurses were urgently required. When asked why aged care providers and the NSW government have yet to implement staffing ratios, despite the insurmountable evidence supporting its benefits, Dr Maree Bernoth had one simple answer. “The reason we don’t have staffing ratios is because of the power of the for-profit-sector in the aged-care industry.” “The decisions are made based on profits, not people,” she said.

 

Updates to the My Aged Care website – June 2021

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, the My Aged Care website continues to be updated based on feedback from users and industry. In June 2021 some significant enhancements were made aimed at improving the user experience.

These updates included:

  • New My guide to aged care tool. This new interactive tool allows older Australians and their carers to create and save a step-by-step guide to accessing aged care. People will need to answer a few simple questions about the type of care they need to generate the tailored guide.
  • Improved My Aged Care Representatives content. The new page aims to better explain the role and types of representatives and how to appoint them. It is also interactive – users can filter information based on whether they would like to appoint a representative or become a representative.
  • Ability to search for multiple services at once in the Find a provider tool. Until now, people have only been able to search for one service type at a time when researching help at home providers. Users can now select as many services as they need, when searching for help at home, Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) and short-term care services.
  • Enhanced search ‘results cards’ and details pages in the Find a provider tool. To support users searching for multiple services, each result card now highlights how many of the services they searched are offered by each provider. Availability information has also been removed from CHSP search result cards. Users will still be able to view the availability of services and service sub-types on provider details pages. This change ensures users can access clear and accurate availability information and we encourage providers to keep this information up to date.
  • Reducing duplicate CHSP search results in the Find a provider tool. This change reduces the number of results cards displayed for CHSP providers – without deleting information or outlets from the My Aged Care Provider Portal – by displaying only one result card per unique ‘Outlet ID' for a service.

Read more about the changes on the My Aged Care website.

 

Collect five new Quality Indicators from 1 July 2021

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, the QI Program now requires approved providers of residential aged care to collect and report on five quality indicators. This is in line with the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Quality Indicator Program) Principles 2021.

The first quarter of data collection for the new quality indicators has already begun (1 July‑30 September 2021). The first quarter of data must be submitted in the 1‑21 October 2021 reporting period.

A range of guidance materials, including the QI Program Manual 2.0 – Part A, are available on the department’s website. The Manual includes the updated physical restraint quality indicator, aligning with new restrictive practice legislation in the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response No. 1) Principles 2021.

The final quarter of data collection for the previous quality indicators was 1 April to 30 June 2021, with data submission due by 21 July 2021.

For QI Program assistance, contact the My Aged Care provider and assessor helpline on 1800 836 799.

 

New legislation on use of restrictive practices

(Note: this excerpt is from the Department of Health newsletter. We cannot provide a link to the full version of this story until the Department of Health uploads it to their website.)

According to the Department of Health, new restrictive practices legislation strengthening and clarifying obligations for residential aged care providers began on 1 July 2021.

The legislative amendments:

  • clearly define restraint and mirror the definitions of restrictive practices and the five types of restraint applied under the disability arrangements
  • strengthen consent arrangements and provide greater clarity on who is authorised to provide consent
  • ensure that restrictive practices are used only as a last resort following employment of alternative behaviour support strategies.

Guidance is available to support providers to meet their legislative obligations for the use of restrictive practices, including:

Further information is available on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s website.

 

Concerns raised about assurance reviews

According to Community Care Review, home care providers will be subject to “assurance reviews” for the first time under new laws introduced in response to the aged care royal commission. The reviews are designed to encourage “continuous improvement”, but legal experts say they give the government the power to demand information about almost all aspects of a provider’s business and could lead to increased compliance action and more sanctions against home care providers.

 

 

Legislation

 

No significant developments this week.

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About the Author

ACE Editorial Team

ACE is published by Ideagen. CompliSpace is Ideagen’s SaaS-enabled solution that helps organisations in highly-regulated industries to meet their governance, risk, compliance and policy management obligations.

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