The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) found that 86 residential aged care providers and 11 home care providers had failed to comply with at least one Quality Standard in the December quarter of 2021.

Standard 3, Personal Care and Clinical Care, saw the most services suffering non-compliance in both residential aged care and home care.

The Commission issued nine compliance notices across incident management and restrictive practices in residential aged care, as well as eight notices to agree and two sanctions; in home care, the Commission issued six directions. No providers had their accreditation revoked in the three months to December 2021.

Victoria was the state with the most non-compliance notices in residential aged care, with a total of 11, followed by Queensland with seven, NSW with six, SA with five, and WA and Tasmania with one each. In home care, two directions were issued to providers in Victoria and SA, and one each in NSW and Queensland. Additionally, one home care provider was sanctioned.

“The provider failed to comply with the User Rights Principles because it did not transfer a portion of one or a number of consumers’ unspent funds to the Commonwealth after it ceased providing care to the consumer/s, and also failed to provide information about those funds when required.

“The provider is not eligible to receive funding for new consumers for the period of the sanction,” the Commission said.

The quarter saw a low strike rate in terms of applications for approved provider status, with only six approved between October and December 2021.