By Alesha Capone and Tara Murray
A not-for-profit organisation which runs a nursing home in Werribee has welcomed the final report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care in Australia.
Mercy Health runs Mercy Place Wyndham, in addition to the Werribee Mercy Hospital and 23 other aged care homes across Victoria.
Mercy Health group chief executive, Adjunct Professor Stephen Cornelissen, last week said the Royal Commission’s final report “invites the aged care sector to participate in a more hopeful, compassionate and caring reinvention of the aged care system”.
In the report, Royal Commissioners Tony Pagone and Lynelle Briggs called for an overhaul of the national aged care system, which was found to have “unacceptably high levels of substandard care”.
The commissioners made 148 wide recommendations including a new aged care act; a plan to report on high quality aged care; a minimum quality and safety standard for staff time; and more funding.
In a statement, Adjunct Professor Stephen Cornelissen said: “Like others, Mercy Health is not above reproach or without blame from failings in aged care.
“We must waste no time in commencing the important work of responding to the recommendations of the Royal Commission.
“We must prioritise any recommendations that can be implemented rapidly, while applying ourselves to delivering an effective response to the balance of the recommended changes.
“Mercy Health is also committed to continuing to implement the changes that we have under way and planned, many of which were delayed or interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Adjunct Professor Cornelissen said some of the changes, some of which have been referenced by the Royal Commission as key issues in system reform, include caring for the elderly in a way that upholds and protects their human rights.
“Over the coming weeks, Mercy Health will review in greater detail the full report of the Royal Commission,” he said.
“We will outline our call to action, stating what we intend to do with regard to the recommendations within our remit to change.”
