Aged Care Industry
Like several developed nations, Australia has been faced with the challenge of ageing population that has made policy-making and healthcare for the aged to become a priority for the Australian government. The age case industry/sector is a $20 billion+ industry in Australia employing more than 350,000 employees across over 2,000 businesses that cars for more than one million elderly persons and disable Australians across Australia. The industry creates annual earnings of about $22 billion, the immense majority of which is government financed. The industry services about 1.3 million Australians, as well as consumers spend around $4.8 billion on aged that was estimated between 2016 and 2017 (Ergas, 2006, pp. 23). Nonetheless, this figure does not include the refundable lodging deposit reimbursed by aged care residents that ranges from thousands of millions of dollars relying on the facility. Thus, the aged care sector in Australia has continued to grapple with different challenges that have affected the quality of care. The age case industry is too fast growing in Australia, driven hugely by the considerable baby boomer cohort who is projected to be 5.5 million strong and constitute the biggest demographic group in Australia (Willis, Reynolds & Keleher, 2012, pp. 35). Born between 1946 and 1965, the oldest boomer in 2017 was 17 years old-firmly in retirement-age boundary, while the youthful was celebrating their 52th birthday. The industry is expected to grow in the future because of the growing number of aged persons in Australia and this implies that spending carry on to increase. The government spending of aged care expected to increase to more than $22.2 billion by 2020-2021 (Richardson, 2016, pp. 12). The paper will examine the aged care industry, overview of competitive landscape of the industry, the trends in the industry, ethical issues, and conclusion.
The Australian aged care industry is large and multifaceted and is among the Australia’s biggest service industry that employees. The industry employs more than 350,000 workers to provide services to more than one million individuals through some 2,000 providers in Australia. The aged care industry plays a leading role in the Australian community. The demographic change along with populace ageing in Australia is growing demand for aged care services, plus this growth is anticipated to carry on into the prospect. Therefore, it is imperative that aged care scheme in Australia is feasible, as well as sustainable into the prospect, and that it can hold up older Australians with suitable degree of care when along with where they need it (Ergas, 2012, pp. 362).
There are more than 2,000 aged care services providers, providing three diverse kinds of aged care services include home care; Home and Community Care (HACC); as well as residential care. The HACC offers admission to essential sustain for older individuals that need help to live independently. Home care services comprise four levels of care offered to older persons at home that range from basic to high healthcare needs. On the other hand, residential care offers accommodation along with support for those who decide to reside in residential aged care homes (Hammond Care Group, 2004, pp. 57). Additionally, the aged care industry does not work in segregation. Thus, the proviso of residential care, HACC and home care services is provided along with industries in Australian financial system, like hospital, as well as medical services. The three kinds of aged care services are provided by the blend of not-profit, for-profit along with state providers. Additionally, the Australian regime controls the provision of aged care services through detailing a nationwide provision object of subsidized operational locations for every 1,000 persons with 70 years and above (age care provision ratio) (Department of Health, 2016, pp. 6).
Overview of Competitive Landscape of Aged Care Industry
With the shift to a market-based system in 2017, there are many changes in aged care industry in Australia, where the present aged community care community has more than 500 providers across Australia. In this competitive landscape, it is apparent that providers of aged care services should make conscious decisions if they want to relevant and become competitive in the industry. The major players in the aged care industry in Australia include Bupa, Opal, Allity, Regis, Estia, and Japara. In 2015-16, Bupa, which is biggest for-profit aged care provider yielded nearly $7.5 billion in revenues while in 2017, it made more than $663 million and more than 70 % of this ($468) of this was from government funding. Opal that is the second biggest for-profit firm had total earnings of $527.2 million in the same period, where 76 per cent emanated from government funding. On the other hand, Allity had total earnings of $315.6 million, and 67 % originated from state funding. Estia, Regis and Japara received more than $1 billion of government subsidies (Lane, 2018, pp. 1).
The Aged Care Financing Authority (ACFA) has predicted an extra 69,000 aged care beds would be required by 2022, making aged care, as well as retirement living a primary investment priority for several listed property finances and availing novel private operators and owner entrants to the marketplace attempting to capitalize on this macro trend. The three players that were listed in Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) include Stockland, Eureka Group Holdings, and Estia. The competitive landscape is transforming through privatization making it harder for smaller firms to be financially sustainable with growing regulatory costs to operate single facilities compared to many huge facilities (McNelis, 2007, pp. 110). The growing competition implies more marketing spending from the large private operators in the industry too. As the aged care industry becomes more crowded, players would require to diversify to remain competitive not only to attract investor funds; however, to deliver care along with services, which the clients anticipate. In the industry, it is no longer adequate to provide four walls, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen. Many elderly persons need to live a life to its fullest and the communities fashioned should allow this wish and work harder and smarter to keep residents linked to the community to guarantee quality life all through their time in care (Ergas, 2012, pp. 363).
Demographic Change
Australia’s ageing populace will considerably impact the demand for aged care services. Consequently, there are two elements of the demographic trend: original, the organization of Australia’s populace is changing; plus second, the long life of elderly persons in Australia has amplified. The structure of the populace in Australia is changing since “baby boomers” generation that embodies a considerable percentage of Australia’s whole populace, shifts into more than 65 years (Quine & Carter, 2006, pp. 7). In the previous years, populace growth in the 65 years and above averaged about 3 % annually, considerably outweighing growth of youthful people. Most remarkably, the percentage of Australians with 82 years and beyond is anticipated to be about 5 per cent of the entire population in Australia by 2054-2055, which is up from about 2 per cent in 2014-2015. This shows the second important element of the ageing populace in Australia: longevity (Richardson, 2016, pp. 15).
Trends in the Industry
Funding Age Care
The financing of the aged care is multifaceted: it is offered by both the public plus private sources; as well as varies considerably across HACC, residential care, plus home care. Funding of the aged care is shifting towards additional consumer-driven, market-oriented systems, with the largest monetary reforms taking place in the aged care segment in Australia. In reaction to customer preferences to reside at home where practical, Australia has shifted to a consumer directed care (CDC) framework, moving funding allotments from service providers to clients (Doty, Mahoney & Simon-Rusinowitz, 2007, pp. 379). Despite these changes, the countries’ expenses on aged care are still anticipated to increasing in the future. Thus, a sum of $78.6 billion has been allotted to aged care over a four-year forward approximate time from 2016-17 to 2019-20. The Australia plans to direct financing towards the release of aged care services-in line with the shifting character of customer favourites. In the forward approximates period to 2019-20, spending on aged care estimate to grow at a standard yearly rate of 16.7 per cent, contrasted to 5.9 per cent for residential care (Bruen, 2005, pp. 131).
Changing Consumer Preferences
As Australia shifts to a market-based CDC framework for the aged care sector in Australia, customer preferences will become more and more vital in ascertaining the kinds of services offered. The trends on consumer preferences have been influenced by definite trends: first, consumers are ever more opting for age at home; second, those who shift into aged care conveniences need more customized services; and third, “baby boomers” coming to aged care in general demand a greater degree and need more multifaceted care. Thus, the baby boomer are not the same as past generations due to their social, economic, as well as cultural attitudes, where they favour to “age in place”, that is, at home (Hogan, 2008, PP. 41). In addition, new residents incoming to aged care homes would favour a broader option of living preferences that reflect pre-care lifestyles. In addition, chronic illness and disabilities are more and more dominant in the Australian population, specifically amongst older Australians who often have diverse chronic health conditions. This implies that the healthcare element of aged care services is a more and more vital deliberation for clients. There is a trend towards more expensive, and specialized care, chiefly as novel healthcare technologies are advanced, which permit for more complex, as well as personalized care (Anderson, Weeks, Hobbs & Webb, 2003, pp. 44).
Technological Change and the Aged Care Workforce
With more than 350,000 staff presently employed in the aged care industry in Australia, the prospective for noteworthy employment growth in the sector can assist counterbalance the decrease in jobs is anticipated to track computerization of Australia’s manufacturing segment. The technology in the industry will balance the personnel via enhancing the work environment in addition to quality of care, other than offering an alternate for labour (Baxter, Glendinning m& Clarke, 2007, pp. 198).
Aged care industry has been affected by several ethical issues that has affected the quality of care that the aged individuals receive din the care settings. The declining standards of the care settings are a primary ethical issue that have affected care settings. Several reports in the latest years have described residents in care settings being subjected to poor and inhuman treatment by overstretched personnel. The providers that offers aged care services tend pursue profits rather than providing between conditions in the aged care homes and residential. This implies that the providers primarily pursue profits at the expense of providing quality care to the old people in the different homes. This means that ethics are violated based on utilitarian theory that requires maximizing the happiness and pleasure of the majority (Willis et al., 2012, pp. 38). However, this is not the case in the aged care settings where the old persons are shackled, battered, plus compulsorily frozen in nursing homes and residential. In some instances, they are left in urine-soaked beds or shoddier are not hard to come by. These entail the violation of the fundamental ethics of the older people. The aged care settings have failed to meet accreditation standards where they fall short of requirements, like offering proper nutrition, hydration, along with safety. This has emerged to be a great ethical issue that should be addressed by the Australian government to improve the standards of the settings (Kollmorgen, 2016, pp. 1).
The other ethical issue that has been reported in aged care industry is the inability to meet the welfare of the consumers. Many older persons have not been attended as needed, where they basic rights have been violated (Frazer, Christensen & Griffiths, 2005, pp. 633). Many have been denied the opportunity to make independent decisions on the care they need in the, aged care setting. In many instances, nurses and providers in these settings have mad decisions on behalf of these clients and in many instances, do not consult their families on these decisions. These decisions in the long-run will affect the welfare of the older persons and decision-making process that becomes unethical. On the other hand, the welfare of the aged person is not met because healthcare workers find it difficult to become an advocate where the situation does not provide the necessary assistance to the consumer in the setting. The absence of welfare for the aged persons clearly violates the ethics on the need to promote the greater good of the person to ensure that they enjoy their time in the home or residential setting (Croft & Croft, 2017, 11).
Conclusions
The aged care industry is Australia is undergoing main policy reform due to the promise of the government to provide effective aged care services along with consumer-driven care. The CDC is intended to offer customers of aged care services with superior control over the kinds of aged care services they access that would deliver the service and when. Thus, the primary element of CDC is consumer-centricity that stresses the health of the individual as identified by the individual.
References
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Lane, I. 2018. “Six big players dominate Australia’s scandal-hit aged care sector”. The New Daily. Retrieved from https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/retirement/2018/09/19/aged- care-profits-players/.
McNelis, S. 2007, “Independent living units: managing and renewing an ageing stock”, Australasian Journal on Ageing, 26(3); 109–114. Quine, S. & Carter, S. 2006, “Australian baby boomers’ expectations and plans for their old age”, Australasian Journal on Ageing, 25(1); 3–8.
Richardson, A., 2016. “IBISWorld Industry Report Q8601: Aged care Residential Services in Australia”, Melbourne: IBISWorld.
Willis, E., Reynolds, L. E., & Keleher, H. 2012. “Understanding the Australian health care system”. Chatswood, N.S.W: Churchill Livingstone.
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