Aged Care

The more familiar terms ‘nursing home’ and ‘hostel’ are used in this article, however, for ease of expression.

See, for example, McLeay L. , In a Home or at Home: Accommodation and Home Care for the Aged, Report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Expenditure, 1982, AGPS, Canberra; and Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Private Nursing Homes in Australia: Their Conduct, Administration and Ownership, Report by the Senate Select Committee on Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes, 1985, AGPS, Canberra.

The Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth) and the Aged Care Principles 1997 (Cth).

By, for example, creating an independent body (the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency) to help drive continuous quality improvement; by requiring effective and fair internal complaints handling mechanisms; and by attempting to improve the quality of the Commonwealth's own complaints resolution mechanism. In relation to complaints handling (internally and through the Department of Health and Ageing) this has not been completely successful.

Section 2–1(1), Aged Care Act 1997.

For example, agreements in relation to the payment of accommodation bonds and accommodation charges.

Under s.81–1 of the Aged Care Act the advocacy services are funded to encourage ‘understanding of, and knowledge about, the rights of recipients and potential recipients of aged care services …’; to enable ‘care recipients to exercise those rights’; and to provide ‘free, independent and confidential advocacy services …’

For an interesting discussion of the quality of ‘regulatory dialogue’ and the need for sanctions-based strategies only when ‘respectful dialogue’ fails, see Braithwaite J. , ‘Regulation and Quality in Aged Care: A Cross-National Perspective’, (1998) 17(4) Australasian Journal on Ageing, at pp.172–6.

Section 56–4(1), Aged Care Act.

Accreditation Standard 3.9.

Section 10.38(2) of the Committee Principles 1997 provides that ‘the affected care recipient or their representative, or anyone else (the complainant) may make a complaint to the Secretary about anything that (a) may be a breach of the relevant approved provider's responsibilities under the Act or the Aged Care Principles; and (b) the complainant thinks is unfair or makes the affected care recipient dissatisfied with the service’.

Section 10.42, Committee Principles.

Section 10.45, Committee Principles.

Division 4, Committee Principles.

Commissioner for Complaints, Annual Report 1 July 2000–30 June 2001, at p.9.

Sections 10.58 (mediation) and 10.66 (hearing), Committee Principles.

Section 10.67, Committee Principles.

Section 10.71, Committee Principles.

Section 10.71(2)(b), Committee Principles.

Section 10.74, Committee Principles.

The majority of our clients are able to resolve their concerns, or their need for information, with our support and without requiring the assistance of the CRS.

High Care Residential Aged Care Facilities in Victoria: Report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee, 2001, Victorian Government Publishing Service, at p.12.

Report under s.35A of the Ombudsman's Act 1976 (Cth).