Fears aged care staff will quit, as Covid-19 vaccine rollout anger grows

Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck says he is concerned workers will leave the aged care sector when Covid-19 vaccines become mandatory in mid-September.

Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck. Picture: Martin Ollman

Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck says he is concerned workers will leave the aged care sector when Covid-19 vaccines become mandatory for them in mid-September, as the government faces mounting pressure to urgently ramp-up the ­administration of aged care doses.

Senator Colbeck on Tuesday said the government was “clearly concerned” about the low rates of vaccination among aged care workers, declaring he wanted to lose as few staff as possible.

“We’re concerned that some of them may do that (leave), but we continue to talk to the sector, and also to the unions, with respect to this,” he said. “We are concerned. We want them to stay in their job. They do a very important job ­caring for senior Australians.”

The latest Health Department figures show that just over a third of aged care workers have been given their first jab and fewer than 20 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Aged care workers were meant to be vaccinated alongside elderly residents in phase 1a of the rollout, but the administration of doses was delayed by dwindling vaccine supplies. Victoria’s deadly second wave last year resulted in the deaths of 655 aged care residents, with Department of Health data showing 84 per cent of the infections came from aged care staff.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard likened the fight for jabs to the “hunger games” as he called for a vaccination blitz for workers in aged care homes.

“We couldn’t understand why the federal government sent teams into facilities to vaccinate residents but not staff,” he said.

Aged & Community Services Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow, who supports mandatory vaccination for aged care workers, said the sector had not been prioritised. Staff were forced to line up at mass vaccination hubs rather than receiving jabs at their workplace, as planned.

“The workers expected to be vaccinated in reach, and we know from doing the flu jab every year that is the easiest and most effective way for workers to be vaccinated, for it to come to the place of work, and to be vaccinated,” she told the ABC.

It comes as fury grows about why unvaccinated staff were allowed to work at the SummitCare aged care facility in Baulkham Hills in Sydney’s northwest after five residents and three workers tested positive to the virus.

ACTU president Michelle O’Neil has also been calling for more vaccinations for aged care workers as an immediate priority.

“Plans to vaccinate aged care workers in their workplaces were completely abandoned,” she said.

“These workers should have been fully vaccinated by April.

“The Morrison government must urgently finish the job of vaccinating aged care and disability care staff.”

Anthony Albanese said the move to make the vaccine mandatory for aged care workers was a “smokescreen” to distract from the lack of supply.

“The problem here isn’t the workers,” the Opposition Leader said. “The problem is they haven’t had access to the vaccines.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said it was “inexplicable” the government had not vaccinated staff and residents at the same time.

“We’ve got the federal government changing the subject by beginning to talk about mandatory vaccination, when even aged care workers who want to get vaccinated have been let down by the vaccine rollout and the way it’s been managed,” she told the ABC.