The My Aged Care single entry point for people to access aged care services is “onerously complex and does not work for everyone”, says the Inspector-General of Aged Care charged with the independent review of the service.  

Inspector-General Natalie Siegel-Brown says the front door to aged care is improving but “not at the scale and pace required to realise the promise of the new Act”.

The objective of the review was to assess whether My Aged Care enables older persons in Australia to navigate to, and initiate, the assessment process required for entry to the aged care system in a timely manner, regardless of their location, health requirements, cultural background, identity or prior knowledge of the system.

The review found that My Aged Care:

• is not well known, is poorly understood and is insufficiently promoted

• remains onerously complex to navigate and not appropriately tailored to the needs of the whole of the target population

• relies on a model of delivery and a workforce that are not conducive to the provision of personalised support

• is not equitable for older people from diverse backgrounds and those with complex needs.

The report critiques the current service and has a raft of recommendations around digital exclusion and digital literacy; over-reliance on digital channels; tech-enabled features that are inadequate and recommended for upgrade; challenges around levels of trust in digital services.

Lack of interoperability is singled out in the report findings.

“The Inspector-General finds the lack of interoperability between My Aged Care and other digital health records and client information management systems to be inefficient as well as an unnecessary productivity drain on workers – and could result in suboptimal health and wellbeing outcomes for clients and patients within the aged care system.

 “This issue is especially important for NDIS participants, as there are inequities between the NDIS and the aged care system that risk disadvantaging individuals transitioning from the NDIS to aged care,” the report states.

However the review acknowledges the many challenges: “ Delivering a single-entry point service that meets the needs of a social group as complex and diverse as older people in Australia is no easy task.

“On top of that, the competing priorities of finite budgets and the broader aged care reform agenda make it all the more difficult to advocate for investing more time and resources into improving the ‘front door’ of the system.

“However, the success of a single-entry point service predicated on equitable access cannot rest on the assessment that the existing service works for many, or even most, people. It needs to work for everyone. At present, it does not.”

My Aged Care is the Australian Government’s single-entry point for people to access aged care services. An older person cannot receive any type of Australian Government funded aged care service without an assessment to establish that care is needed.

The Inspector-General says the Government and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing should designate a senior responsible officer with the Department to oversee the implementation of recommendations; prioritise an evaluation framework and publicly report on progress.