Procurement has a role to play in aged care, to help redesign the operating cost model to ensure high standards of aged care remain affordable indefinitely.
But inevitably, better care will cost more and the vast majority of aged care operators will not be able to bear such increases easily.
The future of Aged Care and health procurement will be in the spotlight at PASA’s 7th annual Aged Care Procurement Conference in Sydney on June 8 and 9.
Ahead of what will be PASA’s first live event in two years, CEO Jonathan Dutton said the rich content being delivered over the two days would give procurement professionals in-depth and contemporary takeaways.
“We’re bringing together a collective of the country’s experts for the largest healthcare procurement conference in our region to address how procurement in the aged care sector is changing,” Jonathan said.
“Guests to this in-person event will hear directly from the CPOs of Uniting Care, Estia Health, RSL Lifecare, BUPA, HealthDirect and SA Health.
“And expert healthcare procurement consultants from KPMG, August Consulting, Multicap & Infosys-Portland.”
Secure your Free ticket – first 100 buyers only.
Other speakers include CEO from Council of the Aging, Social Traders and the RCSA on how to manage agency nursing staff after Covid.
What’s making news in aged care
In the run up to the Australian Federal Election, fixing the aged care system was raised as a top priority in an Australian National University poll.
The top three responses were addressing cost of living (65 per cent), fixing aged care (60 per cent) and strengthening the economy (54 per cent).
New UNSW modelling suggests future aged care costs could easily be more than double Treasury forecasts, the Australian Financial Review reports.
As of 2020-21 about 5 per cent of Australia’s population use aged care, and if aged care was provided on a demand-based level, this would grow to 9.3 per cent by 2060-61, UNSW state.
In December last year, the Federal Government all but tripled funding for aged care under a new agreement to increase total program funding from $52.6 million to $151.1 million over four years.
Meanwhile, Federal Labor is pledging to have a registered nurse in every aged care facility at all times, if it wins the election.
Additionally, Labour has pledged $2.5 billion for improving conditions for workers and residents, better food and safer conditions for residents.
A staffing crisis is gripping the sector, with strikes hitting the headlines in Townsville, North Queensland and reports of workers in Illawarra not having enough time to feed aged care residents.
Secure your Free ticket to PASA’s Aged Care Conference.
