Aged care consumer peak bodies have welcomed National Cabinet’s endorsement of new visitation guidelines for residential aged care that strike a balance between the public health risks of Covid-19 and the essential emotional and physical care provided to residents by their loved ones.
The grief of family and friends is turning to anger when some commentators infer these deaths matter less because residents were already palliative, or on the other hand try to exploit the tragedy for political point scoring.
The Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia today called on all governments to move swiftly to implement in practice today’s decision to rapidly accelerate vaccination of all aged care workers and its “in-principle disposition” to move to mandatory vaccination requirements ASAP.
COTA Australia tonight welcomed the very substantial package of measures in tonight’s Federal Budget that will fire the starting gun on a substantial overhaul of the aged care system over the next five years, supported by additional expenditure of $17.7 Billion over four years.
As a matter of basic human and legal rights COTA believes that every resident of every aged care home has the right to transfer to hospital if they need it and that is their preference.