Catholic Health Australia – Residential Care Service List

Executive Summary
Catholic Health Australia (CHA) welcomes the opportunity to provide input into the updated Residential Care Service List (Service List). Catholic aged care providers will continue to work with the Australian Government to ensure the sustainable provision of aged care and support services for older Australians meet community expectations of safe and quality of care. In our submission to the Senate Inquiry on the Aged Care Bill in October 2024, CHA noted our support of robust consultation on the subordinate legislation. We look forward to working with the Government during the consultation process to ensure the draft Rules achieve their intended outcomes. Our goal is to ensure that the new Act and subordinate legislation fully support a high-quality and safe aged care system for all Australians irrespective of their wealth or geography.

In the main, CHA is supportive of the proposed changes to the Service List, with some important qualifications outlined in this submission. As CHA noted in our submission on the draft Service List in October 2024, some of the current requirements under Residential everyday living and Residential clinical care are unduly homogenised and do not reflect the diversity of care recipient needs and wants and/or the capacity of current residential aged care homes to provide these services. Some language also needs to be amended for clarity.

The draft Service List includes changes to what is required to be delivered by providers in residential aged care settings. These changes, such as ironing services and specific
furnishings, have cost implications and therefore, require consideration of appropriate funding amounts to be provided by Government under the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model. It will be important for the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) to review the finalised Service List and use this as the basis for future costing studies for residential aged care so that all items are adequately costed and therefore appropriately funded.

Key observations and issues relating to the revised Service List articulated in our submission include:

Everyday living services:
A brief summary of key issues pertaining to each consultation question and corresponding
subsection are listed below:

1. Operational services: Some descriptions should refer to services being provided where possible, as the provision of these services may at times be outside of the control of aged care providers, such as internet and telephone access in some geographical areas.

2. Personal and communal spaces: Some descriptions should be broader and less restrictive to support providers to be responsive to individual needs and preferences, for example the provision of armchairs and shower chairs; periodic instead of regular outings; the provision of mouthwash; returning personal laundry to an older person’s room rather than their wardrobe.

3. Personal and communal spaces: Some requirements should also be subject to an assessed need by a health professional such as the provision of a recliner or specialised chair; or need to be a decision of the individual aged care home following a risk assessment in consultation with the individual resident and other residents such as the use of a motorised wheelchair.