Aged care commission underway
The new federal aged care watchdog has been launched.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission was set up last year following a series of scandals involving the mistreatment of elderly residents.
“More than $48 million is being used to ramp up compliance checks and risk management, including the recruitment of additional compliance officers or quality surveyors and complaints officers,” Commissioner Janet Anderson has told reporters.
Ian Yates, head of the Council on the Ageing, says combining all services into a single office will help consumers and families.
“[Then] you can't fall between the cracks of different government agencies,” he said.
“What we want to see is improved quality of training, improved recruitment, new career paths and more staff and better paid staff across aged care.”
The royal commission into aged care announced late last year is expected to deliver an interim report in October and a final report in early 2020.