The following is advice received regarding the status of the Clinical IT in Aged Care project.

AGED care experts have called for a national plan of action to create a better system for looking after our elderly.

SILLY costumes, practical jokes, doctors and aged care are not usually terms that go together, but a leading expert says they are the keys to building healthier, happier aged-care services in Australia.

Tameka Rossouw was one of two children under nine living in a Victorian nursing home. For two years she shared her life with 45 elderly people.

I had never watched anyone die of cancer before my mother contracted this horrible disease. It was painful, watching her suffer for 18 months, desperately clinging to life and refusing to admit she was dying. Even at the bitter end, the last thing she asked was who would drive her home when she felt better.

Elderly and chronically ill patients are being forced to bed hop through the health and aged care system because they do not fit neatly into state and federal funding formulas.

The Project has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Ageing, and is being managed and co-ordinated by the Australian Divisions of General Practice, a peak National body representing 120 Divisions of General Practice across Australia. Of the 60 rural Divisions of General practice 47% applied to undertake a local Palliative Care project. 8 were chosen nationally. Support and guidance will be provided by a National reference group, with evaluation undertaken by the Centre for Health Services Development at the University of Wollongong.

It is quite an achievement for the Adelaide Hills region as it is the only project being undertaken in South Australia. It is a community owned project, which will directly benefit the local Adelaide Hills population.

Deb Rawlings Palliative Care Project officer

Ph: 8391 2495

Mob: 0417 867 863

Email: deb@ahdgp.org.au

Dr Graham Hughes

G.P Advisor

Email: ghughes@healthon-net.com

www.adgp.com.au (National Programs / Rural Palliative Care Project)

Fewer Australians are being born. Fewer are dying before their time. And the result is that our population is growing inexorably older.

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) yesterday called for the establishment of what it called a "Quality Care Compact", which would mark the beginning of the next phase of aged care reform.

QUEENSLAND aged-care residents are being fed for as little as $4 a day, two-thirds of that spent on prisoners, as the quality of care is squeezed in exchange for profit and administrative perks.