Complaints about aged care double in four years, prompting calls for more funding

Complaints about aged care providers have doubled in the past four years, prompting calls from Labor for the government to urgently increase resources.

The problem was highlighted in a report into the Earle Haven nursing home released this week, which criticised the way complaints about the Gold Coast centre were managed. The inquiry found that the complaints commissioner had received numerous complaints between January 2016 and June 2018 about the operation of the centre that were not acted on.

The nursing home closed in July, sparking chaotic scenes as 69 elderly high-care residents, many of whom had dementia, were effectively left homeless.

Labor’s aged care spokeswoman, Julie Collins, said she feared a repeat of the Earle Haven disaster if the way complaints were managed did not change.

She said the government could not afford to wait until the final report of the royal commission, due late next year, to act.

Related: Labor calls for immediate aged care funding boost following scathing report

The number of complaints has skyrocketed from 3,936 in 2015-16 to 7,828 in 2019, an increase of almost 100%. But the number of staff dealing with complaints has not kept pace, rising only from 160 in 2015-16 to 170 last year.

“My concern is that the complaints mechanism is still not there yet in terms of whether or not the commission has the power and the resources it needs to intervene early and resolve a complaint,” Collins told Guardian Australia.

“I think given the doubling of complaints, the government needs to ensure that the complaints mechanism is robust and people have proper resolution to their complaints.”

According to the complaints commission’s annual report, most complaints are referred back to the provider in question, with the commissioner saying it supports the complainant “to resolve their concerns quickly and directly with the service provider”.

The so-called “early resolution” of complaints was achieved for 5,317 complaints (93%) in 2018-19.

Collins said the referral back to providers meant many issues were likely still to be unresolved, with families concerned about retribution against relatives if they escalated their concerns directly with the provider.

“They hope that the regulator can resolve the complaint for them, but they then get pushed back to the provider. We are hearing from the royal commission that some of these don’t actually get resolved.

“I think it is telling that we have had a doubling of complaints, they say 93% are resolved early or finalised, but what actually happens to them? How many of these are actually resolved at a provider level? We don’t know the answer to that.”

The Earle Haven inquiry, undertaken by the former Australian Capital Territory chief minister Kate Carnell, found that the concerns of residents and their families were reflected in the high volume of complaints to regulators about the home.

The complaints authority received six complaints in 2017, eight in 2018 and 16 in the first part of 2019. Some of the more serious complaints related to falls, poor wound management, a lack of staff and residents being left in urine-soaked beds.

But when the complaints commissioner made a referral to the Aged Care Quality Agency, this information was not relayed.

“The referral from the Complaints Commissioner noted only one other previous complaint had been received since 1 January 2016, with no related issues,” the report said. “On this occasion it appears the Quality Agency was misinformed by the Complaints Commissioner in relation to the number of previous complaints received.

“From a process perspective, the complaints appear to have been managed with priority given to meeting internal performance expectations rather than achieving outcomes for the person making the complaints.”

The complaints commission and the quality agency have subsequently been amalgamated into the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, in an attempt to streamline the way complaints are handled by the independent regulator.

The aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, said through a spokesman there had been an increase in the number of full-time equivalent staff employed to deal with complaints.

“The government supports all 23 recommendations [of the Earle Haven report] and has already made significant progress towards the changes required,” he said.

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He pointed to the increased powers of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, and the development of information-sharing tools to better identify problem providers.

Parliament will consider changes to give the independent regulator more powers, which are slated to come into force on 1 January.

“This will ensure the commission is able to provide an end-to-end quality and safety function.”

In the minister’s response to the Earle Haven report, he said he had written to chair of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council, Angela Coote, “for advice on what further powers the Commission needs and to report back before Christmas”.

Colbeck faced questions in the Senate on Thursday about the government’s response to the interim report into the aged care sector, which called for urgent action to address home care waiting lists, the use of restraints and the number of disabled young people in nursing homes.

“The royal commission’s report, as I’ve said in this place before, put the government on notice, put the opposition on notice, put the industry and the entire Australian community on notice that these attitudes need to change,” Colbeck said. “As I said on the afternoon of releasing the report, the government would carefully consider the matters that were raised.”

Scott Morrison has said more funding for the sector will be included in December’s mid-year budget update.