Providers call for new emergency body to deal with Covid aged-care crisis

Rising aged-care Covid deaths requires a new emergency co-ordination authority to be urgently created by the federal government, provider groups say.

Almost 600 aged care residents have died this year from Covid. Picture: AFP

Aged-care operators are calling on the Morrison government to urgently create a new emergency response centre to arrest the growing Covid-19 death toll in nursing homes after another 144 residents died in the past week.

Providers warn logistical support is failing residents and staff, with insufficient personal protective equipment and rapid antigen tests reaching homes and the government’s surge workforce failing to cover all shifts missed by carers affected by the Omicron outbreak.

As the number of aged-care residents who have died of coronavirus pushes past 600 this year, providers are worried about the potentially devastating combined impact of future Covid variants and the winter flu, saying a new co-ordinated approach was critical.

In a letter sent to Health Minister Greg Hunt and Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck, provider advocacy groups Leading Age Services Australia and Aged & Community Services Australia propose a new body be created and led by a new Covid aged-care chief.

The National Aged Care Covid Co-ordination Centre and its leader would “provide oversight and control of the Covid response in aged care”, the proposal says, using an emergency management approach.

The concept was similar to the National Covid Vaccine Taskforce led by Lieutenant General John Frewen.

LASA chief executive Sean Rooney said better resource co-ordination was required to deal with the lethal outbreak across aged-care centres, and to handle a potential future fourth wave.

“The Omicron wave is creating a situation where our facilities are regularly unable to fill shifts, which limits their ability to look after the residents in their care,” Mr Rooney said. “This is despite the efforts of many overworked carers who are regularly pulling double and triple shifts.

“Facilities are also routinely struggling to source PPE and RATs, and to pay the bills as the cost of prevention rises, let alone when they are needing to respond to an outbreak.”

The most recent figures show one in four shifts were going unfilled last week, leaving care of the nation’s most vulnerable compromised.

More than 800 nursing home residents have died since July, the majority this year.

There are 1176 aged-care homes with an active outbreak, down by 85 from a week ago, Health Department figures show.

There are 5439 residents who have Covid out of a total of 9718 cases associated with current outbreaks. The difference is those who have either recovered or died.

Similarly with staff, while 15,478 carers are positive cases ­associated with an active outbreak, 6541 still have the virus.

Leading Age Services Australia CEO Sean Rooney. Picture: Gary Ramage

Labor’s spokesman for health and ageing, Mark Butler, said the nation was in the midst of an aged-care crisis.

“Tens of thousands of older Australians locked in their room isolated from each other, from their family and visitors,” Mr Butler said.

“And most tragically, more than 600 older Australians losing their lives to Covid in aged care in just the five weeks just gone by.

“The government needs to fix its debacle of a booster rollout in aged care, 60,000 aged-care residents at least still not boosted and 60 per cent of aged-care staff still not with a booster shot.”

The providers’ proposed new co-ordination centre would operate nationally, but using nodes in each state and territory designed along the lines of the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, set up to deal with aged-care outbreaks during the first wave of coronavirus in 2020.

It would deploy resources ­between states and call on the Australian Defence Force in emergency outbreak situations, including if surge workforce ­capacity was exhausted.