Tag: aged care facilities

Retirement village exit rules changed

New legislation means that NSW retirement village contracts will now include a timeframe that ensures timely payments for a former resident’s exit entitlements.

These changes apply only to registered interest holders with a long-term registered lease that gives them at least 50% of any capital gain.

They do not apply to:
• registered interest holders who own a lot in a strata or community scheme village or own shares in a company title or trust village that gives them their resident right; or
• unregistered interest holders.

New retirement village laws started in January 2021. The changes reflect complaints made about how exit entitlements were previously managed and provide a timeframe for former residents to receive their exit entitlements. Summarised, the changes:
• enable residents to receive exit entitlement money before their unit sells (if the sale has been ‘unreasonably delayed’);
• provide an option for residents to fund their move into aged care by accessing part of their estimated exit entitlement money;
• ensure residents no longer have to pay ongoing charges for general services for more than 42 days after they leave the retirement village (commences on 1 July 2021 onwards).

New legislation has been introduced which affects existing and all new retirement village contracts. Previously registered interest holders had to wait until a new resident either moved into or leased their old unit before they were able to receive their share of the sale proceeds (the “exit entitlements”). This could mean that if the village operator delayed the sale of a unit after the resident left, the former might not receive their exit entitlements for anywhere between two and five years.

Under the new legislation, a registered interest holder can apply to the Secretary of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation for an exit entitlement order directing the village operator to pay the exit entitlements to the former resident even though the unit has not sold. The order can require payment after six months for Sydney metropolitan, Wollongong and Blue Mountains residences and within one year anywhere else in NSW. This order will only be made if the village operator has “unreasonably delayed” the sale considering the time taken to refurbish the unit and whether the operator as selling agent has performed all their duties within reasonable time.

Such an application can only be made by a former resident but not their estate. If the order is made, the exit entitlement must be paid with 30 days of the order.

If the registered interest holder moves out of the retirement village into a residential aged care facility and has not received their exit entitlement, the resident may ask that the operator make one or more daily accommodation payments to the facility on behalf of the resident within 28 days of the resident’s request. As more than 60% of residents move directly into aged care, their move can be delayed if they do not have access to funds to pay the daily accommodation payments to the facility and the unit does not sell quickly. These amendments are intended to make the transfer easier for residents and family members.

For more detail, see Fair Trading website, https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/about-fair-trading/legislation-and-publications/changes-to-legislation/changes-to-retirement-village-laws

New Year resolutions for a lucky country

It’s the start of a new year and it’s the perfect time to make your own resolutions for the year. Lose weight, get more exercise, drink less alcohol – we all know about those. We also know that if we don’t incorporate those resolutions into our daily routine from day one, we are not likely to succeed.

Taking a national perspective – it’s been a year where managing the pandemic has been a world-wide priority rather than taking any positive policy steps. Australia has not experienced the same kind of turmoil as the US or the UK but as we come out of the pandemic crisis, what should be the policy focus for our country? What do you think should be included in the Australian government’s New Year resolutions? To be on their To Do list from day one.

Here are a few suggestions:
• Distribute the Covid-19 vaccine to anyone at risk.
• Raise the JobSeeker allowance by $100 per week.
• Recognise our First Nations people in the Constitution.
• Introduce carbon-pricing for all industries to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2040.
• Implement a nation-wide bushfire emergency plan.
• Close Nauru and bring all refugees to Australia.
• Buy all the empty apartment blocks around Sydney and use them to provide affordable housing.
• Initiate key recommendations from Aged Care Commission in all aged care homes.
• Develop a plan for all coal industry workers to transition to renewable energy industries.
• Reduce the registration costs for all electric cars.

May her death not be in vain

The death of Ann-Marie Smith, who died from serious illnesses that developed while receiving full-time care in her home provided by an employee of a disability care provider is a stark warning to potential users of the home care system.

The 54-year-old Adelaide woman suffered from cerebral palsy and lived alone in Adelaide’s leafy eastern suburbs before dying in what has been described as “disgusting and degrading” conditions.

Ms Smith died in Royal Adelaide Hospital on April 6 from septic shock, multiple organ failures from severe pressure sores, and malnourishment. She had apparently been living and sleeping in the same chair in her lounge room for over a year.

While the carer was sacked by the provider, Integrity Care SA for her “serious and wilful misconduct”, Ms Smith’s death has been declared a major crime.

If your family member died in this situation, do you think simply sacking the employee would be enough? To what extent does the provider carry responsibility for their employee’s conduct?

The ongoing nature of the neglect endured by Ms Smith highlights the need to strengthen the accountability and penalty regulations applying to Commonwealth funded aged care services providers.

Rather belatedly, the federal government has announced that a Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) mandatory reporting framework will be introduced into residential aged care providers from 1 July 2021 which will implement greater reporting of incidents involving residents. Potentially, SIRS may be extended into home and community aged care.

The lack of oversight of both in-home care and residential aged care has been the subject of a number of investigations and reports, with little regulatory action to date.

Under the proposed SIRS framework, care providers will be required to report on a broader range of incidents, including neglect, psychological or emotional abuse and inappropriate physical or chemical restraint. Significantly, it will also lift the current exemption on the reporting of resident on resident incidents, where the perpetrator has an assessed cognitive impairment.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will receive incident reports and will have enhanced powers to administer the SIRS, including taking regulatory action where needed.
As part of the ongoing feasibility study, funding has been included to investigate the design, implementation and regulation of a worker register for aged care.

A 2019 report done by KPMG, Strengthening protections for older Australians, commissioned by the Department of Health, estimated that there were more than 20,000 unexplained serious injury incidents which were not reported under the current system. Any reform of the current aged care system is seen as increasing the regulatory burden on providers to report and respond to serious incidents with an accompanying increase in staffing of the Commission to deal with reports.

The sooner a mandatory reporting scheme is introduced, more deaths like Ann-Marie Smith’s can be prevented.

Sen R Colbeck media release, https://www.richardcolbeck.com.au/press-releases, 14/06/20
Dept of Health release, https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/strengthening-protections-for-older-australians, Feb 2019