Pandemic costs pushing nursing homes to the brink of closure
Nursing homes say they need emergency financial help from the government to prevent further Covid outbreaks and more deaths.
Dozens of aged-care homes are on the verge of shutting their doors as the ongoing cost of protecting residents and staff from the Omicron wave proves unsustainable, Catholic Health Australia says.
CHA, representing the largest grouping of aged-care homes in Australia, says financially strapped facilities can no longer bear the extra costs of trying to prevent the Omicron strain from entering facilities, and without emergency government support, the number of Covid-related deaths will rise.
“Around half the aged-care homes in Australia are only barely able to make ends meet and now the extra costs associated with this new wave of Covid are going to push them over the edge,” CHA director of strategy and mission Brigid Meney said.
“Buying and managing PPE inventories, extra measures to ensure safer visitations, additional costs associated with staff infections, co-ordination of vaccinations – it all costs money that’s just not readily available within the budgets of most homes.
“Homes in regional areas are particularly vulnerable given how precarious most were pre-pandemic,” Ms Meney said, noting that 60 per cent were running at a loss.
While the government reimburses facilities the costs of managing an outbreak, it doesn’t fund prevention costs.
The government’s own Covid data shows nursing home operators are fighting a losing battle to keep Covid out.
The number of aged-care facilities managing active outbreaks spiked from 210 in early March to 846 last week. Covid cases among nursing home residents soared from 1618 to 6361 in the same period, as did staff cases from 1297 to 5243.
The number of deaths from Covid in nursing homes this year now sits at 1107, more than last year and 2020 combined, and has risen by 253 since the beginning of March.
CHA, which represents services caring for 60,000 aged-care residents, is calling for urgent federal support. It says a provider with 10 nursing homes will in the past year have spent about $2m in PPE, $750,000 for rapid antigen tests, and $1.5m on extra staffing.
“If we don’t see a special stream of funding opened up urgently, we will see deaths rising and homes shutting their doors,” Ms Meney said.
“The situation is now sadly that stark and that simple.”
Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck said the government was already resourcing the residential aged-care sector to support it through Covid-19.
“We are providing RATs to all facilities for screening and for outbreaks, and we are pre-positioning two weeks’ supply of PPE to all providers in case of outbreaks, and covering the costs of outbreak situations,” he said.
“Providers are required to provide PPE as they would normally in non-outbreak situations.”
CHA’s warning comes amid a deepening political stoush over delivering 24/7 nursing care in all homes across Australia, with Labor accusing the Coalition of lying about its commitment to the idea.
Anthony Albanese opened Labor’s election campaign with a $2.5bn aged-care pledge that included bringing forward by a year an aged-care royal commission recommendation for 24/7 nursing in all homes, but the Coalition questioned where the extra nurses would be found.
Labor said it would give part-time nurses more hours and stop the exodus of nurses from the sector, though the Opposition Leader said foreign nurses could also be sourced.
This week, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the Coalition had accepted the recommendation for 24/7 nursing in aged-care homes, though not until 2024, as per the commission’s reform timetable, to ensure there was no impact on nursing staff in other health sectors.
Labor aged care services spokeswoman Clare O’Neil said the Coalition had never formally committed to, or budgeted for, having a nurse on site at all times, only to an interim measure to have at least one nurse on duty for 16 hours a day.
“We cannot allow government ministers to … completely fib about what their policy is,” Ms O’Neil said.
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