Qld public aged care fail to meet standards for staff, patient care

Residents of public aged care facilities in Queensland are receiving less than the minimum 3.6 hours of care a day, as only two of 16 homes make the grade.

Residents in Queensland’s public aged-care facilities are receiving less than the minimum 3.6 hours of care each day, as a crippling shortage of staff pushes nursing homes to the brink.

Shocking figures reveal a shortage of aged-care workers in Queensland’s state-owned facilities as just two of 16 homes pass the grade, putting pressure on the level of care provided to hundreds of patients across the state.

The State Government in 2019 introduced legislation requiring public nursing homes to provide a minimum of 3.65 hours of nursing care per resident each day.

Worryingly, half of the residents in seven of the 16 state-owned aged-care facilities are provided less than that minimum requirement, new data covering the July to September quarter reveals.

A two-year phasing-in period means the legislation won’t be fully enforced until February 2022 – meaning facilities are not considered non-compliant.

Just two of the 16 facilities report at least 90 per cent compliance with minimum staff requirements.

Westhaven Aged Care, Redland Residential Aged Care, The Oaks and Waroona are among the facilities with the lowest compliance.

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath

The poor performance of Queensland’s state-run facilities has raised concerns among stakeholders, who say the quality of private operators is likely to be far worse.

Twelve of Queensland’s public nursing homes report lower than 16 per cent compliance with minimum staffing requirements – including five which don’t meet the requirements at all.

A spokeswoman for Queensland Health said the department was committed to “continuous improvement” across its facilities.

“It’s important to understand that public residential aged care facilities are not currently non-compliant. This is because the minimum workforce requirements do not become mandatory until February 2022,” she said.

“Public residential aged care facilities are working hard to ensure they can comply with the minimum standards, when they become mandatory in February 2022.”

Despite the concern, Queensland’s 3.65-hour daily care standard is above the 3.33 hours recommended by the Royal Commission Into Aged Care.

Queensland’s figures were revealed through the Government’s Inform My Care website, which compares Queensland hospitals, public and private aged care facilities.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath on Friday criticised the 84 per cent of Queensland’s 494 private aged-care facilities which refused to supply data.

“On the back of the Royal Commission Into Aged Care I really would have thought that aged care providers would see the benefit in giving the public confidence of the service they provide,” Ms D’Ath said.

“With the horror stories that have come out of that Royal Commission the public want to know that when they put their loved one into aged care that they’re going to be cared for properly.”

Council of the Ageing chief executive officer Mark Tucker-Evans said the data revealed there was a significant amount of work to be done across the sector.

“Sometimes it’s not the hours that matter, but the level of care,” he said.

“There needs to be some further work done to ensure older people in Queensland, public or private, to get the care they deserve.” 

Mr Tucker-Evans said the Queensland Government was doing better than some of the private facilities.

Queensland Nurses Union secretary Beth Mohle said the sector was working toward a mandated 3.65 hours of patient care among state facilities, but said Covid-19 made recruitment difficult.

“It’s been improving over time,” she said.

United Workers Union Aged Care director Carolyn Smith said the for-profit side of the sector performed far worse with staff struggling to keep up with patient requirements.

“They are covering up significantly worse figures than what’s been reported by the publicly-run homes,” she said.