Innovation and consolidation in Australian care for the aged

Citation

Morris, B. (2001), "Innovation and consolidation in Australian care for the aged", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 14 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2001.06214cab.001

Innovation and consolidation in Australian care for the aged

Edited by Barbara Morris

Innovation and consolidation in Australian care for the aged

Keywords: Health care, Innovation, Care, Elder care, Australia

In January, Bronwyn Bishop, Minister for Aged Care, released the 1999-2000 report on the operation of the Australian Aged Care Act 1997. She said the report reinforced the substantial efforts the Commonwealth Government had made in the past year to improve access to aged care services and ensure high quality care, highlighting the consolidation in the last two years of the reforms introduced in 1997, and some of the more recent important new initiatives that had grown out of the Government's commitment to raising the quality of care.

According to Mrs Bishop, a variety of measures was providing older Australians with a wider range of care options and delivering innovative aged care solutions in small rural communities. She said:

The report shows a dramatic increase in the availability of care services to people in their own homes and unprecedented interest from providers wanting to expand or create new residential aged care services.

The report shows that the aged care industry is investing significant funds into new buildings and refurbishment of existing facilities. It has completed or committed to $1.4 billion worth of building work and refurbishment in the past two years. Some 12 percent of the residential sector has been newly constructed or rebuilt since the 1997 reforms and a further 25 percent per year are being upgraded or extended.

During 2000, a National Aged Care Accreditation and Compliance Forum was established to work with the Minister on the development of strategies to further improve the quality of aged care.