Source: Melbourne Herald Sun [Ben Packham]

OUR frailest citizens are being fed for as little as $5 a day by nursing homes.

The shocking food budget is revealed in a catering contract for a Melbourne aged care home.

The 118-bed eastern suburbs home has passed all Federal Government checks and is accredited until February 2009.

The cut-price contract emerged as a Herald Sun investigation revealed:

ALMOST 550 Victorians live in homes that have failed to meet basic nutritional standards in the past 18 months.

A NURSING home executive investigated over claims he killed elderly patients is moving to return to the industry.

A HOME where residents were sometimes left in pain and were potentially malnourished has been allowed to stay open.

TEN per cent of nursing homes do not meet all required standards at any one time.

Aged care insiders say the $5 food budget is typical of many nursing homes, with residents forced to eat tough meat, soggy vegetables and processed snacks.

The budget can be seen in a contract adjustment for patients who do not eat.

"Enteral feeding/Gastronomy/Empty beds. Refunds will be calculated on food cost per patient per day ($5)," the contract says.

The Herald Sun has decided not to name the nursing home – which passed nutritional and other standards in November last year – to protect the catering firm from legal action.

A review of Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency records shows 10 aged care homes with a total of 549 residents failed to meet basic nutrition standards in the past year.

The home that budgeted $5 a day for meals got more than $3 million in taxpayers' money last financial year. When labour costs, expenses and profits are included, the caterers received $16.95 a resident.

Residents get breakfast – usually porridge or cereal – a cooked lunch and dinner, plus dessert.

Morning and afternoon tea are also served, as well as a glass of wine or beer with dinner.

Aged care homes can get up to $122 a day in taxpayer funding per resident.

The catering company has worked for five other homes with similar daily food budgets.

The company missed out on contracts with 12 aged care facilities, despite quoting similar prices.

Opposition aged care spokeswoman Jan McLucas said she was shocked by the stingy spending.

"I certainly don't think I could feed any person with $5 worth of food a day," she said.

"It raises concerns for me that the accreditation process is actually assessing the quality of care adequately if a facility can pass all outcomes and be feeding people on $5 a day. I'd be very concerned. It's appalling."

The Aged Care Association of Australia said it believed the average daily food bill for residents was about $8-$9.

"It can vary enormously, but you've got an average for the industry of about $8 to $9," chief executive Rod Young said.

"When you are cooking for a group of about 50 you can do . . . bulk purchasing and food preparation."

Aged care activist Lynda Saltarelli, who runs the agedcarecrisis.com website, said cold meals were also a major cause of complaint.

"High-care residents in particular, who are bed-bound or in a wheelchair, they can't get up and eat themselves. If you haven't got enough staff on, it's hard to get around and feed everyone while meals are still warm," she said.

Aged Care Minister Santo Santoro said of the 3000 nursing homes in Australia, 300-400 did not comply with at least one of 44 official standards at any one time.

But he said the Federal Government was satisfied with the monitoring of the industry.

"Homes are required to have a nutrition and hydration plan for each resident, and to monitor and respond to any weight loss or gain," Senator Santoro said.

"Menus must be varied regularly and homes must take account of feedback from residents."