Bendigo aged care advocate welcomes 2021-22 federal budget funding

Details of the funding have been welcomed by the Council for the Ageing.

It comes after the March final report of the Royal Commission into aged care, which slammed "substandard" care and "systemic flaws" in the nation's system.

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Bendigo aged care services advocate Ruth Hosking said she hoped to create a regional council of elders, with a contact person in Bendigo.

Mrs Hosking said this would create a pathway for people's concerns and congratulations about aged care services to reach government.

The bulk of budget funding was given over to home and residential aged care, with $7.5 billion and $7.8 billion respectively committed over five years from 2020-21.

This included money for an increase in mandated front line care to 200 minutes per day, including 40 minutes with a registered nurse.

Other aged care funding included nearly $700 million over five years to improve access and quality to aged care services in regional, rural and remote areas, $942 million over four years to improve access to primary care. Slightly over $200 million was committed to create a new star rating system.

Mrs Hosking welcomed money put aside to improve the quality aged care outside of metropolitan areas, saying it was a recognition of need.

She said the budget's funding for 80,000 more home care packages was an excellent start, but in reality Australia needed more than 100,000 to make sure every person received one within a month of application.

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Mrs Hosking said home care services also needed appropriately trained people to staff programs, because they were all short staffed.

She said mandated minimum staffing minutes per day for each resident was also recognition of need.

Council on the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates said the budget funding was a serious and meaningful response to the damming final report of the Royal Commission into aged care.

Mr Yates welcomed the acceleration of the home care system, and a commitment to create a new aged care act.

He said the government's investment in daily care of Australians in residential aged care was welcome, but measures needed to be stronger.

"We will continue to argue for mandatory full transparency about staffing numbers and mix, finances including third party entity payments, quality measures, and resident and family feedback," Mr Yates said.

"The Australian public deserves to know how their funding of aged care is being spent."

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said the aged care funding was a "substantial investment" but was unfortunately "backloaded", so critical spending was right at the end of the budget period.

- with AAP.

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