Gold Coast aged care homes need to reverse cuts, hire staff to beat COVID-19 second wave
A move made by aged care homes across the Gold Coast has been described as the exact opposite of what they need to do to if they’re to beat a potentially deadly COVID-19 second wave.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
QUEENSLAND aged care homes need to reverse wholesale cuts and recruit more staff to combat a second wave of the deadly coronavirus.
Major care providers such as Tricare, Blue Care and Bolten Clarke, which operate more than a dozen homes on the Gold Coast alone, have been among those to slash staff during the pandemic.
OUTBREAK FEARED AT GOLD COAST FACILITIES
However, the Aged Care Royal Commission into the COVID-19 response has been told that facilities in virus-hit Victoria and NSW were left virtually empty as workers had to quarantine to stop the elderly getting infected.
Last week, more than 1000 healthcare workers in the two southern states had tested positive to the virus. As of Friday, 220 aged care residents had died of COVID-19, making up 70 per cent of all the country’s coronavirus deaths.
At commission hearings last week, Counsel Assisting Peter Rozen QC said Federal Government estimates of staff loses during an outbreak had been “plainly wrong” and operators should expect to “lose close to their entire workforce in the first few days of an outbreak”.
Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union (QNMU) secretary Beth Mohle said the union was concerned for the wellbeing of elderly Gold Coast residents.
COVID-19 AGED CARE CRISIS WORSENS
She was also worried about a lack of staff skilled in infection control, lack of transparency around any COVID-19 readiness plans, availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), infection control training for staff and visitor checks.
“This life-threatening understaffing is directly linked to the Federal Government’s refusal to introduce mandated safe staffing minimums in Australia’s 2000-plus private aged care facilities,” she said.
“Given the lack of transparency in private aged care facilities, the QNMU has no way of knowing how Queensland private aged care facilities are preparing for any potential COVID-19 outbreaks. Aged care staff are some of the lowest paid workers in Australia. As such, many are forced to work at a number of private facilities in order to make ends meet.”
During an outbreak, nurses are required to work at a single facility which means those working at multiple centres lose hours.
Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) CEO Craig Gear said preparation varied from facility to facility.
IMMANUEL GARDENS AGED CARE IN LOCKDOWN OVER COVID FEARS
“I am anxious ... Some homes were going though 2500 gowns in and out per day because of the regular changes needed,” he said.
“On top of that, if you lose half of your staff how are you planning for that? How are you rehearsing?
“Have you got families’ names and numbers ready to go, to let them know what is happening?”
OPAN has set up a support hotline to assist aged care residents.
Minister Age Care Richard Colbeck had earlier told a senate hearing there were failures in facilities, but the outcome was inevitable with ongoing community spread.
“We are in a circumstance now where we’re dealing with a pandemic. The reason that we’re having infections within aged-care facilities and the reason that we’ve got the number of deaths we have, tragically, is the high level of community transmission.
HOW TO PROTECT GOLD COAST’S ELDERLY
“We’ve got a situation in Victoria where we have over 1000 healthcare workers as well as close to 600 aged-care workers infected with the virus. Nobody is immune from this and it’s putting an immense amount of stress on the entire healthcare system.”
Originally published as Gold Coast aged care homes need to reverse cuts, hire staff to beat COVID-19 second wave