Nursing Home Residents at Risk

More than 200 frail and elderly nursing home residents in the Northern Territory may be at risk by nursing homes failing to meet regulations for fire sprinklers, fire doors and alarms.N

The latest figures from the Department of Health and Ageing show that in the Territory, 46.7 per cent of facilities have not yet gained their new fire certificates, a report in the NT News said.

The regulations, set down in 1999, were due to take force by the end of 2003 but despite a two-year increase in the deadline to the end of this year, thousands of nursing home residents are still without proper protection.

Should these homes fail to meet the December deadline, they could have their accreditation suspended, and lose their government funding.

The Territory figures are among national data that shows nearly half the nursing homes in Australia failed to meet new fire safety standards, despite being paid $500 million in taxpayer funds to upgrade facilities.

Shadow Minister for Ageing Jan McLucas said the Federal Government needed to guarantee the residents of nursing homes and their families these homes were operating at the required standard.

"The Government has handed out a substantial amount of money but it is not ensuring providers are complying with the fire safety standards," Senator McLucas said.

"The Government will have to guarantee that frail, elderly nursing home residents are not being put at risk because it is not enforcing its requirements."

But a spokesman for Ageing Minister Julie Bishop said the figures did not take into account operators who would leave it until the last minute to report their compliance on December 31, and it was expected all homes would meet the target on time.

The Federal Government last year paid each nursing home $3500 per resident to meet the costs of the increased fire protection.

Aged Care Association of Australia chief executive Rod Young said it was not unreasonable to take so many years to meet the higher standards.

"We are going to need a little more time. You can only do certain things at a certain speed," he said.

Article from news.ninemsn.com.au