Fire Prone Aged Homes May Not Receive Funding

By Mark Davis, The Sydney Morning Herald

March 30, 2009

Australia

THE Federal Government will use its funding muscle to restrict the building of nursing homes in areas that are prone to natural disasters following the evacuation of aged-care facilities during the recent Victorian fires and Queensland floods.

The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, and the parliamentary secretary for Victorian bushfire reconstruction, Bill Shorten, will announce requirements today for nursing home operators to improve their ability to handle emergencies.

The main change will be a requirement for all operators seeking funding for new aged-care places to show how they have taken natural disaster threats into account in their facilities.

This move follows revelations that developers are able to use NSW planning laws to trump local government and fire authority rules prohibiting nursing homes and retirement villages being built in some of the state's most dangerous urban bushfire zones.

The Herald reported last month that the state planning department was considering a proposal from the developer Sid Londish to build a 60-bed nursing home and 500 retirement units on land in the fire-prone Oxford Falls valley, in north-eastern Sydney.

In a statement issued last night, Ms Elliot said that while there had been no loss of life at aged-care homes during the recent Victorian fires and Queensland floods, several had to be evacuated.

"Continuing to care for and evacuating older frail people from nursing homes during a time of disaster can be very challenging, and - at times - dangerous for them, especially high-care residents," Ms Elliot said.

The new requirements for nursing home operators to demonstrate how they had taken threats of natural disasters into consideration would be introduced from the next annual aged-care approval round, which begins in the final quarter of this year, she said.

While new nursing home development proposals are regulated by state laws and local council regulations, when it comes to building location and design, the Federal Government regulates access to funding, and accreditation and certification standards. The Government allocates thousands of bed licenses to aged-care homes across the country every year through the annual aged-care approval rounds.

Ms Elliott and Mr Shorten will also announce that they will press for improvements in existing nursing home certification requirements and accreditation standards to ensure operators plan for emergencies that are widespread and prolonged.

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