Covid: Call to keep ADF enlisted in aged-care support

The Australian Defence Force has provided vital support in nursing homes for the last five months, and aged care providers want it to continue past the government’s cut off date of August 12.

Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Sadler.

Amid a rapid escalation in nursing homes dealing with a Covid outbreak, aged-care providers are urging the Albanese government to extend the support being provided by the Australian Defence Force beyond the current August 12 deadline.

With almost 900 aged-care ­facilities dealing with a current outbreak, about one-third of the national total, and numbers anticipated to accelerate in coming weeks as the winter Covid wave continues, providers are gravely worried about having enough workers to care for residents.

“It seems likely that the impact of the current high community transmission will run at least through August and possibly beyond,” Paul Sadler, acting chief executive of peak provider group the Aged and Community Care Providers Association, said.

“We believe that up to two-thirds of all aged-care homes may become affected by Covid; if that happens, as many as 30 per cent of staff may be unavailable to work.

“The pressure on the aged-care workforce will be extreme if we do get another peak like we had in January, which is why we request the government reconsider ceasing the support of the ADF for the sector on August 12,” Mr Sadler said.

“If a worst-case scenario comes to pass, every last person being available to work in aged care will be crucial.”

As with other parts of the nat­ional workforce, aged care has suffered during Covid after migration was curtailed, but it has also seen a flight of workers into other, better paid parts of the care economy such as disability care and the health sector.

Meanwhile Covid has wreaked havoc in nursing homes, with more than 2000 residents having died from it this year, more than double the combined deaths of the previous two years. About 80 people have died this week alone.