My name is Alwyn Blayse, I’m a physiotherapist who has worked in aged care for over 23 years. And I’ve never been so concerned about the clinical care of our mums, dads and loved ones in nursing homes as I am right now. Frank is a lovely retired butcher in a nursing home I know. Frank in September 2022 was walking pain free and used to have 80 minutes a week of physio. Frank now receives none.  He can’t walk, falls and has shocking levels of pain. He has no quality of life. This isn’t caused from age. He’s only 71, and is significantly worse in just a year. This is because Franks not getting the physio and other clinical care he used to get and needs, and that the home is separately funded for but doesn’t pass on. 

On October 1, 2022 age care reforms (AN-ACC) introduced by Minister Wells of the Albanese government were supposed to improve clinical care. Instead they led to thousands of nurses, physios, allied health and dental practitioners losing jobs. Already poor levels of clinical care of older people were slashed lower than what the Royal Commission into aged care called inadequate to prevent older people deteriorating. There is a simple solution to this problem. There ALREADY exists billions of dollars of extra funding for the clinical care of aged care residents - we just need the government to mandate homes to spend that money on residents instead of letting them not pass it on.

We are calling for mandated minimum minutes of clinical care delivery for nursing home residents like Frank in accordance with the evidence presented to the Royal Commission.

Despite the Royal Commission, the new aged care reforms have translated into worse outcomes and LESS care for our loved ones in nursing homes. 

Currently, there are no required minimum levels of enrolled nurses, allied health care, dental care and they don’t count towards star ratings of aged care homes. There are no effective penalties for these homes to spend on clinical care even though they are funded for it by the government.

Older people's complex medical needs requires specialized care delivery by appropriately skilled and qualified staff. There is ample evidence that nursing, physiotherapy, allied health and oral health are vital for care of our elderly. 

So far, we’ve seen a system of ineffective penalties and threats to try and force nursing homes to provide adequate clinical care to their residents. But this only led to more job cuts, lack of job security and excessive workloads. Instead of this punitive system, we need to encourage nursing homes to provide holistic care to their residents, by directly linking ALL clinical services to their star ratings. The public need to be able to see transparently how much taxpayer money that’s given for clinical care of older people is being passed on 

We want:

• Public reporting of nursing home clinical care minutes and spending on ENs, allied health and oral health practitioners compared against state and national averages like the US star rating system does. 
• Have mandated minimum clinical levels of Enrolled Nurses (ENs) , Physiotherapists, other allied health professionals (AHPs) and oral health practitioners. 
• Ensure older people can access and pay for additional services if they want and can afford, but not have to pay for minimum levels. 
• Have clinical levels of ENs, AHPs and dental to count separately towards staff care minutes and star ratings. 

Please sign and share this petition to urge the government to take this simple step to dramatically improve the care for our elderly.