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Australian PM announces 365-mln-USD to address aged care failures

CANBERRA
2019-11-25 15:34

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CANBERRA, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced more than half a billion dollars in funding for the aged care sector after a landmark report revealed a "shocking tale of neglect."

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety published its interim report in October, revealing systemic failures in the sector that have left elderly Australians neglected and living in "unkind and uncaring" conditions.

It called for immediate action in the three priority areas: increasing home care packages, reducing chemical restraints and getting younger people out of residential aged care.

Responding on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced 537 million Australian dollars (365 million U.S. dollars) in additional funding for the sector.

Almost 500 million Australian dollars (339.9 million U.S. dollars) will be spent on providing an additional 10,000 homecare packages to keep the elderly out of aged care facilities.

More than 25 million Australian dollars (16.9 million U.S. dollars) will go towards better medication management and 4.7 million Australian dollars (3.2 million U.S. dollars) to help meet new targets to remove younger people with disabilities from residential aged care.

"I want to assure all Australians that we will deal with these issues as you would if you were standing in my shoes today," Morrison told reporters.

"I know quite precisely the sorts of things that you are thinking about at the moment when it comes to the treatment of your loved ones in aged care. My family is no different to yours in that respect."
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