“…like the introduction of any major system reforms anywhere, there were bound to be a few problems needing ironing out.”
Oh dear. Two and a half months after its introduction, and despite lots of advance planning, the new aged care system still seems beset with some problems.
The adoption and implementation of aged care reforms has been an ongoing topic for the last few years with the ‘final stages’ of implementation occurring on 1 July this year. While, in my view, there is much to be pleased with in the overall suite of reforms, like the introduction of any major system reforms anywhere, there were bound to be a few problems needing ironing out.
Last week, a reader – Trish Donovan – posted a comment to the story Chris Baynes had written about the concept and intention of the new Consumer Directed Care system, expressing her cynicism and disheartenment with accessing the new system.
Chris’s article reported on the speech made by Assistant Minister for Social Services, Mitch Fifield at the recent Aged and Community Services Conference in Perth. And of course, the Minister’s messages bristled with all the good intentions of the Government.
But Trish Donovan’s story wasn’t good. She wrote:
“This consumer directed care seems all very fine however in order to access any care NOW the consumer must be referred to my Aged Care, who are responsible for referrals.
“One family of a 98 year old consumer living alone has been informed it will be at least 3 months before she can be assessed! Meanwhile she is left at risk without extra services being allocated.
“Previously this consumer who has been receiving basic services would have been assessed for her extra care needs by the community service provider and support services would be in attendance until she received an assessment from ACAT.
“This consumer was told she had to go to her GP for a referral to My Aged Care in order for My Aged Care to refer her for an assessment from ACAT.
“It seems to me they have thrown the baby out with the bath water. Who is monitoring My Aged Care? I have been informed the actual referral information from the GPs is not able to be accessed by the community nurse and consumers who would prefer to maintain their service provider when discharged from hospital, are being referred to a different service provider by My Aged Care, which is causing confusion for the consumer.
“This does not equate to consumer directed care.”
Unfortunately Trish’s story is not unusual. The implementation of the new My Aged Care system and arrangements hasn’t been without incident and many of the participants in the system – and the technology it all relies on – have failed to meet readiness deadlines.
A little bit of desk research reveals a number of issues that remain outstanding or in varying stages of resolution.
My Aged Care system falling behind
For instance, on 20 August, aged care industry news service, Australian Ageing Agenda, reported that the Department of Social Services was “working to urgently address a number of issues that have emerged with the expanded My Aged Care gateway launched on 1 July, in what has marked a rocky start to the new system of national screening, assessment and referral of aged care clients.”
The story referred to a “significant backlog of web-based referrals and faxes to the My Aged Care contact centre” and “a low volume of assessments that have been conducted by the new Regional Assessment Services (RAS)”.
According to that report, the department has set itself a mid-September target to have the system and processes resolved. That’s right about now.
The departmental officer told a conference for aged care providers that while all the systems were functioning properly, the centre was struggling with the high demand and so was “not working to the level that we expect or accept.”
According to that report, the department has set itself a mid-September target to have the system and processes resolved. That’s right about now.
Aged care service providers also lagging behind
The same story in Australian Ageing Agenda reported that only “a small proportion of providers” – that is, the aged care service organisations that actually deliver the care – were yet to activate their services through the web portal in order to receive and accept referrals.
However an update this week from the Aged and Community Services Association (ACSA) reports “concerns that a number of aged care providers have not yet activated their services to receive referrals and conduct business through MyAgedCare.”
The CEO’s report to members of ACSA says ‘the short time frame’ has been raised with DSS and “moving over to a new system may have caused some confusion for providers in activating services.”
GPs say system is laborious and insecure
Meanwhile, Australian Doctor reports that GPs are describing the MyAgedCare website as ‘unsafe’ and ‘insecure’ for aged care referrals, saying it is delaying help to some of Australia’s most vulnerable patients.
According to the story, the MyAgedCare website “was meant to make it easier for doctors and nurses to make referrals for aged care assessment team (ACAT) assessments and Home Care Packages.”
The problem, it says, is that the site doesn’t conform to national secure message delivery standards. Doctors claim its poor design makes the referral process more onerous than ever and increases the risk of referrals disappearing into a cyberspace black hole.
One of the key complaints seems to be that there is no option on the website for doctors to send referrals via an electronic communication system “that conforms to the national [secure message delivery]system standard”.
One GP in Townsville GP said she was refusing to use the “nightmare” website that was “a disaster and a step back into the 20th century, if not the previous one.” In the story, she claimed it dragged out the time required to make an ACAT referral “from two minutes to at least 20.”
Lots of factors
Let’s be realistic. Major policy change and all the systems and processes that come with it will inevitably run across unforeseen problems and other challenges that were harder to predict. I think most of us get that. But we do need to understand that precious lives – and livelihoods – are at stake if a system like this can’t be made to work efficiently in circumstances that are frequently difficult and time frames that are frequently unpredictable.
Patience is still required but hopefully not for too much longer.
Watch this space. And feel free to share your own thoughts.
