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Australian residential aged care is understaffed

Kathy Eagar, Anita Westera and Conrad Kobel
Med J Aust 2020; 212 (11): . || doi: 10.5694/mja2.50615
Published online: 1 June 2020

The existing system is failing to deliver the care that Australia expects

Australia's aged care has changed considerably in recent decades. In response to consumer demand, old institutional‐style nursing homes have been progressively phased out in favour of better facilities. Home‐like furnishings and decor and single bedrooms personalised with residents’ own belongings have increasingly become the norm. In the process, they have become residential aged care facilities (RACFs), and there is no longer a distinction between low and high care.1


  • Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW


Correspondence: keagar@uow.edu.au

Acknowledgements: 

The research summarised in this article was funded by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. This funding was paid to the university and not the authors. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety had no role in the research or in the preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests:

None declared.

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