RE: New Aged Care Act Consultation About the AHHA

8 March 2024 Department of Health and Aged Care - New Aged Care Act Consultation GPO Box 9848 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia E: AgedCareLegislativeReform@health.gov.au To whom it may concern, RE: New Aged Care Act Consultation The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Consultation on the new Aged Care. [...] However, there are three changes we would like to propose to the exposure draft in order to facilitate the effective implementation of its stated objective to “set the foundations of this new system and will focus on the safety, health and wellbeing of older people, and put their needs and preferences first”1. [...] 1) Refine content relating to palliative care and end of life care Regarding Section 22, Statement of Principles, 3(d), which states: “maintain or improve the individual’s physical, mental, cognitive and communication capabilities to the extent possible except where it is the individual’s choice to access palliative care and end-of-life care”2. [...] While there are several references in the draft act to care being tailored to the needs of the individual or according to personal needs3, references to the use of clinical assessments, reviews or tools are limited to the process of assessing if a person is eligible for an aged care package and what will be funded within that package. [...] To resolve this, the meaning of high quality care within the Act must include, in line with recommendation no.13 of the Royal Commission, the specification that a service is delivered in a manner that prioritises that care: 2 “be provided on the basis of a clinical assessment, and regular clinical review, of the person’s health and wellbeing, and that the clinical assessment will specify care desi.