Care needed in service delivery

19 Mar 2019

The City of Darwin keeps saying there are enough toilets in the CBD – we think and know, there isn’t.

This week the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety focuses on home care services, something which all COTAs in Australia called for as part of the Commission’s Terms of Reference. COTA NT has heard of seniors who whilst registered with My Aged Care and having an allocated provider, have not allegedly received the service required. Whether this is due to remote locations or to some other reason, surely the provider should advise they can’t deliver a specific service and perhaps liaise with another provider who can.

On another note about aged care provision, we welcome the Federal Government’s release of new legislative principles requiring aged care providers to publish information on the breakdown of costs in home care packages and abolish separately-charged administrative charges by the 1st July 2019. Again, this is something COTAs throughout Australia lobbied for.

Issues around development of aged care and mental health care facilities

We have had discussion lately with developers interested in the development of aged care and mental health facilities. They reiterated that dealing with government departments has been difficult.  I would have thought in our current economic times; these departments would be rolling out the red carpet to assist these developments. Whilst we can appreciate that due process needs to be maintained, it seems we have a long way to go with eliminating unnecessary red tape and becoming “development ready” for investors in the Territory.

Lack of public toilets evident in City of Darwin

Regarding a recent decision by City of Darwin on tee-shirts’ offensive slogans, we think they have more important issues to discuss. For example, the other morning, someone defecated on our pathway shortly before 30 seniors were to attend a Tai Chi lesson (and cruise ship visitors arrived in the CBD). Our staff cleaned this up, but was this the best use of our time? The City of Darwin keeps saying there are enough toilets in the CBD – we think and know, there isn’t!

~ Sue Shearer, CEO COTA NT

Tags: Seniors Voice