Aged-care providers flag sector collapse

Aged-care homes are closing down across the country as the sector faces ‘collapse’, Labor says.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck says he has not offered his resignation to the Prime Minister, and does not believe he deserves to be sacked. Picture: Gary Ramage

Aged-care homes are closing down across the country as the sector faces “collapse”, Labor says.

Southern Cross Care on Wednesday announced it had been forced to close two facilities in the regional NSW towns of Swansea and Bombala because of workforce shortages, with chief executive Helen Emmerson claiming the sector had “never before been in such a crisis”.

It joins seven other facilities that have closed for similar reasons since the Omicron wave broke out.

Opposition spokeswoman for aged care Clare O’Neil said the sector was in a crisis before the pandemic hit but Covid had brought it to a “breaking point”.

It follows the death toll in aged care during 2022 ticking over 700 this week, which is more than the deaths in the sector recorded through 2020 and 2021 combined.

“This is the deadliest outbreak of the pandemic, aged-care homes are struggling and they are shutting their doors,” Ms O’Neil said.

“The government must come forward today with a plan for how it is going to address this crisis.”

Ms O’Neil said large aged-care providers had raised concerns with her that more closures were to come as staff continued leaving the sector.

A survey from the United Workers Union of more than 1000 aged-care staff showed more than 30 per cent of respondents indicated they would leave the profession in the next 12 months and almost 20 per cent indicated they wanted to leave “as soon as possible”.

Just over 130 of the 1700 Australian Defence Force personnel allocated to “fill the gaps” left by Covid have been rolled out into aged care so far.

But Ms O’Neil said the effort would not be enough, with 140,000 aged-care shifts vacant.

However, Health Department deputy secretary Michael Lye challenged providers’ claims about staff shortages in senate estimates.

Leading Age Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney.

Mr Lye said the department was “not sure about the (providers’) methodology … because we can’t replicate it”.

He said that despite requests, peak provider groups Leading Age Services Australia and Aged & Community Services Australia had not offered any basis for the figure.

But LASA chief executive Sean Rooney said his organisation discussed the figure with the department on many occasions.

He said it was based on payroll data from large providers with dozens of homes who had lost between 20 and 30 per cent of shifts, taking the midpoint.

“We then tested this with the hundreds of providers that attend our state-based Covid-19 sessions, and there was consensus that this was about the right figure,” Mr Rooney said.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck defended his performance, despite more than 900 nursing homes experiencing an active Covid-19 outbreak, just under one-third of all facilities.

“We’re the only one (party) with a plan on the table,” he said.