Ageism in Australia’s health system is not subtle and it is not theoretical. The Human Rights Commission’s new report shows older people are being dismissed, talked over and pushed through a system that routinely devalues them. The findings are blunt: ageism shapes clinical decisions, silences older patients and contributes to poorer outcomes, slower recovery and earlier death.
In The age barrier: older adults’ experiences of ageism in health care, older patients and families describe being rushed, ignored or treated like a burden before they even reach the end of a sentence. Many said decisions were made without them. Some said clinicians spoke to their children instead of to them. None of this is harmless. It is a pattern that undermines safety.
Age Discrimination Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald AM did not soften the message.
“This report holds a mirror up to our health system. It reflects the voices of older people who have too often felt unseen, unheard or undervalued.”
He said people “felt rushed through the system, treated like a burden, a caricature, just another number.” Many described being “dismissed by medical staff, spoken down to, excluded from decisions about their own care and having conversations directed to their family members instead of them.”
This is bias shaping clinical judgment. And the consequences are not abstract. The Commission states that ageism is linked to “poorer health outcomes, delayed recovery, reduced quality of life and even earlier death.”
Ageism showed up everywhere the Commission looked: communication, treatment decisions, guidelines, policy settings and health-system culture. It is not an isolated attitude. It is a structural fault line.
The report calls for urgent action. Review clinical guidelines. Train health workers to recognise age bias. Co design care models with older adults instead of around them. Build stronger research so the scale of harm is no longer hidden behind anecdotes.
Fitzgerald acknowledged the pressure on health services, but did not accept it as an excuse.
“As our population ages, demand on health services will only grow. This is an urgent moment for us to find out how care can be improved.”
He also made clear this is not a blame-seeking exercise. “It is an invitation to doctors, nurses, allied health staff and their employers to work with us toward generational reform. To build a system where every person is treated with dignity, empathy and respect, not as a stereotype, but as a human being.”
The Commission’s findings sit alongside its earlier report on systemic racism in healthcare. When age bias intersects with cultural bias, disadvantage deepens. Some older Australians are entering the system carrying every barrier at once.
Australia cannot keep running a health system that quietly devalues the people who use it most. Older Australians are not asking for special treatment. They are asking to be seen, heard and included. The fact that this still needs to be said is the sharpest warning in the entire report.
