31Duty to comply with Aged Care Act 1997 of Commonwealth

31 Duty to comply with Aged Care Act 1997 of Commonwealth

(1)  In this section –

Commonwealth Act means the Aged Care Act 1997 of the Commonwealth.

(2)  A licensee must provide for each resident of a residential care service who is not a funded resident a standard of accommodation and a standard of care as required by any enactment or under any guidelines published under any law of the Commonwealth or Tasmania.

(3)  Without limiting subsection (2) , the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, declare that any Quality of Care Principles in respect of aged care that are in force under Chapter 4 of the Commonwealth Act or any Principles made by the Minister administering that Act in force under Chapter 7 of that Act are to apply as a law of Tasmania.

(4)  It is the duty of the licensee of an establishment to provide for the health, wellbeing, personal care and social and cultural needs of all persons for whom any health service is provided and, in particular –

(a) to maintain an adequate number of appropriately skilled staff to ensure that the needs of all such persons are met; and

(b) to provide care and services of a quality that is consistent with any rights and responsibilities of those persons; and

(c) to comply with the Accreditation Standards, Residential Care Standards, Community Care Standards and Flexible Care Standards, as may be appropriate, in force under the Commonwealth Act; and

(d) to provide access to an appropriate complaints mechanism for those persons; and

(e) to provide such care and services as are required by any other Principles in respect of aged care that are in force under this section.

(5)  A licensee who fails to discharge any of his or her duties under this section is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding 100 penalty units and, in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine not exceeding 10 penalty units for each day during which the offence continues.