Aged care reforms need a regional lens to view and maintain the viability of smaller facilities, Member for Mallee Anne Webster says.

Following the announced closure of Dimboola’s Allambi Elderly People’s Home and after speaking to other smaller aged care facility CEO’s across the electorate, Dr Webster said the Federal Government needed to consult with independent regional aged care facilities before enforcing operational changes that would risk their closure.

“A one size fits all policy simply does not work” Dr Webster said.

“What I have been hearing from those on the ground is while the Coalition supported recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care, Labor have now legislated without due consideration to the local operations and practicalities of smaller regional facilities.

“Such as some across Mallee which have 38 beds or less.”

Dr Webster said the concerns of smaller facilities directly related to care minutes and the requirement to provide Registered Nurses around-the-clock, with no other options for managing care such as 24 hour on call GP’s and nurses in small towns.

“The reality is that most GP’s or nurses on call are five minutes away from the facility,” she said.

“This is not taken into account by the government.  Not surprisingly, visas or the lack of permanent residency and the lack of accommodation in small towns contribute to the challenges smaller regional facilities experience.

“In speaking with Peter Ballagh, the CEO of Dunmunkle Lodge in Minyip, and Anthony Hogan the CEO of Goodwin Village in Donald, these issues have been discussed.

“These care minutes and 24/7 RN requirements are designed to raise the standard of care in facilities, and on face value they will, however I have spoken with residents themselves at Allambi for example, who are completely happy with the level of care they are receiving,” Dr Webster said.

Dr Webster said it was a case of the Government saying the level of care being provided isn’t good enough, but that doesn’t fit the experience of residents themselves.

“Regardless, it is Government regulations that will decide whether a facility is viable or not, no matter what the residents feel,” Dr Webster said.

“In a lot of these cases residents are not wanting a Registered Nurse in front of them for 40 minutes a day, what they have now is working for them.”

Dr Webster is calling on aged care facilities across Mallee to contact her office with information on how the new reforms will impact their services and what challenges they face to remain compliant when the new policies come into force.

“I have written to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about these reforms and included the petition signed by the Dimboola community, so that he can recognise the impact on grassroots services of urban centric policy” Dr Webster said.

“These reforms are like a square peg in a round hole for regional independent providers. Christmas is an awful time to place the security and comfort of our elderly residents at risk bulldozing through with these reforms.”