Aged Care Responsibility in Australia.
Who is really responsible for the COVID-19 issues in Aged Care Services in Australia?
State and territory governments are responsible for on-the-ground responses to COVID-19 outbreaks in the aged care sector.
The Federal Government is responsible for funding and regulating the aged care sector.
A poll taken to determine the public view on who is responsible was shown on TV today, with 30% saying that the Federal Government is responsible. The majority however did blame the individual Aged Care operators, with the State governments getting 2nd place for the blame, or credit where appropriate.
As at 29th August 2020, according to the following chart, Australia has had 1,859 COVID-19 cases in government subsidised aged care facilities.
1,796 of these were in Victoria.
61 were in New South Wales.
1 was in Queensland.
1 was in Tasmania.
None in the other states or territories.
For those who say the Federal Government is really responsible, it must be assumed that their policies have worked extremely well in the other States and Territories, and the Federal Government should receive credit for that.
However, I just heard the Queensland Premier stating the conditions that the state government have imposed on Aged Care facilities in Queensland.
The Queensland state government, not the Federal Government, gets credit for its handling of their Aged care facilities. Just one case and no deaths, according to the chart.
There have been 376 deaths in Victoria that are classed as Aged Care related, from their 1,796 Aged care cases.
Logic says that the responsibility, good or bad, must be with either the State Governments or the facilities management.
So:
Is the State Government of Victoria or the individual facility management teams that are responsible?
A few days ago, I heard that 97% of aged care facilities have had no cases, no deaths.
If correct that would indicate that the state governments are doing OK, and so are 97% of the facility management teams.
The Federal Government, the State Governments and 97% of Aged Care facilities have got it right in 6 out of the 8 states and territories.
We can draw our own conclusions from the above information.