An Australian Productivity Commission report states that a growing number of elderly people across Australia are left waiting more than nine months to receive vital aged care services.
In the wake of COVID-19, this wait time is set to soar.
The newly established Victorian Aged Care Response Centre brings together Commonwealth and Victorian State Government agencies in a coordinated effort to manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in aged care facilities.
Monash University professor, Joe Ibrahim, a key witness at the Royal Commission into Aged Care, laments the Federal Government did not develop a COVID-19 plan specifically for the sector before the second wave of infection began in June, thus exacerbating pre-COVID wait times.
Federal Government support from the Australian Defence Force or from other agencies could have provided aged care operators more resources during this critical time to avoid the exponential cost of now rectifying these oversights.
