The federal government’s aged care regulator conducted just two unannounced or ‘surprise’ quality and safety checks of home care providers in an entire year, according to new data released as the agency comes under fire for suspending visits of nursing homes during Covid-19.
In figures supplied at the request of the aged care royal commission and tendered in evidence this week, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission revealed it has only performed 213 quality reviews or on-site ‘assessment contacts’ of home care providers in the year to 31 July. Fewer than 1 per cent of these were gold standard checks where a provider is given no warning that the regulator will be auditing their standards.
