Aged care experts have slammed Labor's ham-fisted attempt to repair its broken aged care assessments system at a public hearing in Canberra today.
The Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) has been widely criticised for relying on automated, algorithmic decision-making, which has been demonstrated to systematically underassess care need and priority, denying thousands of older people essential care.
Labor is attempting to add an "escalation pathway" for review via an amendment to an unrelated bill, but this pathway would not give clinical assessors override power, but instead send the decision to the Department for review.
Ian Yates, who established the office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care, labelled the IAT a 'methodologically inept and ill-conceived tool', and gave evidence the proposed escalation pathway did not address its fundamental problems. Mr Yates called on the Senate to reject the attempted fix, stating 'two wrongs don't make a right.'
Professor Kathy Eager, an advisor to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, also slammed Labor's amendment, telling the committee that the Department 'developed the algorithm in-house and when it's now making a mistake, it gets to mark its own homework'.
These government amendments come after a cross-party bill to restore human override and a Greens motion to abolish the tool entirely both passed the Senate.
As stated by Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Greens spokesperson for Older People:
"The Integrated Assessment Tool is broken, and this half-baked amendment won't fix it.
"The IAT systematically denies essential care to older people, especially those with cognitive issues, mental health conditions and frailty, and yet the government still gave it absolute power over aged care assessments.
"The Labor government, the Minister and the Department have all shown a complete lack of understanding as to how badly this tool has gone wrong, and how poorly designed it is.
"The expert evidence is blindingly obvious. Scrap this broken tool, restore human override by clinicians, and start putting the needs of older people at the centre of the aged care system.
"The Department shouldn't be trusted to check its own homework when it comes to its mistakes, that power should rest with clinical professionals."
