Staff 'extremely concerned' over cuts at nursing home: Union

THE Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union said staff at Churches of Christ Care’s Nubeena and NuMylo aged care facilities in Toowoomba are “extremely concerned".

THE Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union said staff at Churches of Christ Care’s Nubeena and NuMylo aged care facilities in Toowoomba are “extremely concerned for their residents”. Picture: Bev Lacey

THE Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union said staff at Churches of Christ Care's Nubeena and NuMylo aged care facilities in Toowoomba are "extremely concerned for their residents".

Staff at the facilities have added their voices to union calls for the establishment of legislated staff to patient ratios.

QNMU regional organiser for Toowoomba Jennifer Ballantyne said the proposed cuts would put more pressure on nurses at the facilities to perform duties outside their scope.

"(Cuts) put pressure on the people below (management) to breach policy because they're trying to cut corners," Ms Ballantyne said.

"It's just a high risk for everybody. My concern is these people will be replaced with personal carers who are not qualified or trained with medications, or to assess people."

Staff members speaking on the condition of anonymity said the proposed cuts flew in the face of their organisation's values of "unconditional love, behaving with integrity and being good stewards".

They said the cuts would mean workloads would increase, potentially resulting in "unsafe practices".

Churches of Christ Care chief operating officer David Swain refuted the claims, saying there would be no impact on the standard of care provided to residents.

"Staff numbers and the mix of staff, due to professional skills, are constantly being reviewed and adjusted to meet the needs of residents," he said.

"We employ highly qualified and appropriately certified clinical care staff to help manage our residents' healthcare needs. Those staff provide a vital service, we value their skills and expertise, and we believe they need to be remunerated appropriately.

"We are growing jobs in the Southern Downs region currently thanks partly to the expansion of our Stanthorpe aged care service, and a new service under construction at Warwick. More than 200 new jobs will be delivered by Churches of Christ Care to the region in the next 18 months.  

"Churches of Christ Care is one of the leading not-for-profit providers of residential aged care in Australia, operating 29 residential aged care services throughout Queensland (27) and Victoria (2)."

Originally published as Staff 'extremely concerned' over cuts at nursing home: Union