Last modified on Mon 1 Mar 2021 00.33 EST
Elderly Australians have suffered declining quality of aged care due to decreasing funding levels as successive governments provided the struggling sector the “bare minimum”, the aged care royal commission has found.
On Monday the final report of the royal commission was released, signalling that a massive investment will be required to improve care after two decades of efficiency dividends cut more than $9.8bn from the annual aged care budget.
Food and nutrition, dementia care, the use of restrictive practices, and palliative care have been highlighted for urgent attention in a damning report that makes more than 140 recommendations to fix a sector that the commission’s interim report said “diminishes Australia as a nation”.