Chronic understaffing leaves elderly with sub-standard care in Queensland aged care homes

AN AUDIT of Queensland aged care facilities has found chronic understaffing and associated neglect in all 30 of the state’s federal electorates.

The QNMU, in response tostaff concerns, conducted a secret audit of Queensland ged care facilities and found none measured up. Picture: iStock

AN audit of Queensland aged care facilities has found chronic understaffing and associated neglect in all 30 of the state’s federal electorates.

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union Secretary Beth Mohle said checks of more than 80 aged care facilities from Cairns and Cloncurry to Coolangatta found that all failed to provide the recommended hours of care for elderly residents.

The audit found elderly Queenslanders were routinely forced to wait for help and were not properly washed, fed, medicated, exercised or turned.

They received 1.69 hours of care below the recommended 4.3 hours per resident.

“Nurses, midwives and QNMU staff, tired of federal inaction on aged care, recently took matters into their own hands to conduct a secret audit of aged care facilities,’’ Ms Mohle said.

“Today we reveal the federal electorate breakdown of the audit’s findings. The results are startling.

“The QNMU’s audit has confirmed Queensland’s aged care facilities are in crisis due to chronic understaffing and the complete lack of federal staffing laws in Australia’s private aged care industry.’’

The QNMU audit also found more than 77 per cent of aged care staff were not nurses, and not properly trained to provide care for the elderly, 80.5 per cent said staff levels were unsafe at their facility, and 57 per cent said they did not have enough time to properly feed residents.