Remotely Managing Health & Aged Care

Following my recent criticisms of the My Aged Care process, last week I received a phone call from a lovely lady purporting to represent "Health Direct Ltd". When I asked who Health Direct was, she politely informed me that they were the company responsible for the management of My Aged Care.

In another brilliant move by the commonwealth government to muddy the waters, following on from the 'outsourcing' of aged care complaints to the 'independent' Aged Care Complaints Commissioner and aged care accreditation processes to the 'independent' Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, we now find that they have followed suit and transferred responsibility for the aged care assessment process to Health Direct Limited, which according to its website is a "government-funded service, providing quality, approved health information".

Health Direct Ltd is a public company limited by shares, jointly funded by the commonwealth and a range of state government departments to provide a basic internet and phone based information and referral service call centre. 

From what I could ascertain, all the information available is published and/or available elsewhere and the site contains no new information or resources. It does however provide all the information in one spot which is a bonus ... but I have to wonder how much this convenience is costing the taxpayers of Australia given they have a board, directors, executives and a governance structure akin to a government department.

According to the flashy website:

Our shareholders are the Commonwealth, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia governments. The intended outcomes for the Company are:

• The Australian public has better access and equity of access to the most appropriate health information and advice.
• Australians have greater confidence and capacity to manage their own health.
• The health status of Australians is improved.
• Demand for health services is managed more efficiently and effectively.

Their website includes a Dr Google style "symptom checker" where you can choose a topic and the site will provide advice and a link to appropriate services. Unfortunately, when I tried the service and selected the very disturbing symptom of "anal bleeding", I entered my gender, age and postcode but received an error message telling me "Sorry, you have made some errors. Please check and try again". I'm not sure if the error was my gender, age, postcode or the fact that the very smart computer system knew I did not have anal bleeding.

I did manage to get it working by typing in the full name of my suburb and it ran me through a myriad of questions and then provided me with the sound advice to see my GP. 

Call me overly cautious, but how did we jump from a service providing basic information and links to information held by others to determining an older persons suitability to be assessed for an aged care service?

The website provides absolutely no details about the qualifications, skills or experience of those undertaking this preliminary assessment and making decisions about whether older Australians are deemed appropriate for home and residential aged care assessment.

The Health Direct website provides a link to My Aged Care which fails to disclose that the My Aged Care "Assessment Centre" is managed and staffed by Health Direct Ltd and not by the Australian Government like the website branding suggests.

The My Aged Care website states:

The My Aged Care website has been established by the Australian Government to help you navigate the aged care system. My Aged Care is part of the Australian Government’s changes to the aged care system which have been designed to give people more choice, more control and easier access to a full range of aged care services.

My Aged Care is made up of this website and a contact centre. Together they can provide you with information on aged care for yourself, a family member, friend or someone you’re caring for. You can call the My Aged Care contact centre on 1800 200 422 between 8am and 8pm on weekdays and between 10am and 2pm on Saturdays. The My Aged Care contact centre is closed on Sundays and national public holidays.

You can expect our staff to be polite, helpful and knowledgeable and to provide:

• prompt, reliable and confidential services
• clear information, which can be made available in languages other than English if you speak another language and need an interpreter
• in other formats if you have hearing difficulties or a vision impairment
• help to find Government-funded aged care services
• prompt resolution of any complaint or concern you have with My Aged Care.

Nowhere in this explanation does My Aged Care disclose it is not operated by a government department, nor that it is managed by a separate company.

Because of this omission, it also does not provide a link back to the Health Direct website where all the health information is located, thus it can be reasonably questioned how Health Direct will ever meet its stated aim of providing improved access to health information, if people don't know they exist and the much promoted My Aged Care website hides them away like Bart Simpsons evil twin brother in the attic.

So back to the phone call.

The conversation was unfortunately short but the content was telling. The conversation was simply

"I understand you have raised some concerns about the My Aged Care Process".

I answered, "Yes I have".

Silence.

I asked "have you read the article?"

She answered, "Yes I have".

Silence.

Given how explicit the article was, I am still at a loss to explain what more information she required or why she wanted me to start again from the start.

Unfortunately, the phone call was ended with a promise to call again to discuss the matter further. When (and if) this occurs, I hope they come to the table a little more prepared.