COMMUNITY meetings will be held at Mornington, Rosebud and Hastings next month to discuss Mornington Peninsula Shire’s role in supporting older residents following announcement of the federal government’s proposed aged care reforms.
The mayor Cr David Gill said Flinders MP Greg Hunt called him on Friday concerned that a news release issued by the shire was misleading.
“He [Mr Hunt] said that there would ne no reduction to government funding [for aged care] and that it was already in the budget,” Cr Gill told The News.
Cr Gill said three public meetings would help the shire respond to the reforms proposed for beyond June 2020 which would affect some aged and disability services to residents.
Cr Gill said the government was proposing to introduce an open market aged care system “where there will be a range of providers available and clients will be able to choose who they receive their services from”.
The council discussed the proposed reforms on Tuesday 12 March. It voted to proceed with a request-for-proposal process and community engagement exercise to “explore all options available to deliver certain aged and disability services to residents”.
Aged care services “will continue as normal during this period and clients will be kept informed throughout the process”.
Cr Gill said the shire was “acting early to ensure council has time to consider all options for the best way to transition if the new aged care system the commonwealth government is considering goes ahead”.
During the process, he said, there would be no change to the council’s service delivery. It is not obligated to appoint a new service provider at the end of the process.
Services affected include domestic assistance, personal care, respite care and social support – individual (shopping assistance).
Services not included are meals on wheels, assessment, home maintenance, community transport, seniors clubs and positive ageing.
Meetings to discuss changes to aged care will be at the former Mornington Council Chambers, 2 Queen Street, 4.30-6.30pm, Monday 8 April; Rosebud Memorial Hall, 997 Point Nepean Road, 11am-1pm, Tuesday 9 April, and Hastings Community Hub, 1973 Frankston-Flinders Road, 3-5pm, Thursday 11 April.
Details: mornpen.vic.gov.au/servicereforms or call 5950 1688.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 26 March 2019
