Victorian coronavirus outbreak: Relaxed rule for aged-care workers leaves elderly at risk

The federal government’s plan to stop staff working at more than one nursing home was halted in November.

A resident peers out the window of the Coppin Centre in Footscray, Melbourne, on Monday. Picture: Tony Gough

The federal government’s plan to stop aged-care staff working at more than one nursing home to prevent the spread of Covid-19 was halted in November,­ allowing the latest Victorian cluster to jump ­between at least two Melbourne aged-care centres.

There are now three new Covid-19 cases linked to two aged-care homes in Victoria, including a 99-year-old resident who has been hospitalised, while another two ­facilities went on high alert after staff at a centre in Melbourne’s west took shifts there.

After the horror of Melbourne’s earlier outbreak, which resulted in the deaths of 655 residents, the Morrison government last July applied new guidelines aimed to stop staff working at more than one facility by topping up their pay for any hours lost.

The program was shut down in November, after the outbreak ended, and has only been intermittently reinstated, most recently on Thursday after commonwealth officials declared a new hotspot in Melbourne as case numbers grew.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley. Picture: Wayne Taylor

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, which representing aged-care workers, said that approach was “too reactive”.

“The government should ­implement single-site employment earlier and to ultimately ­address the reasons why nurses and carers need to work multiple jobs to make a living,” said the ­federation’s Victorian secretary, Lisa Fitzpatrick.

A Health Department note to nursing staff on Monday shows the guidelines are voluntary, noting “workers at residential aged-care facilities are reminded they should limit their work to a single facility during the initial high-risk two-week period”.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said it was a “very serious” situation. “I don’t have to remind people in Victoria and Australia, the disproportionate impact Covid-19 has on fatalities and private potential, in residential aged-care settings,” he said.

It remains unclear how the latest outbreak in Melbourne, which now comprises 52 community-­acquired cases, again found its way into the city’s nursing homes.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Monday flagged mandatory vaccinations for aged-care workers was being examined by a medical expert panel.

But he defended only preventing aged-care staff from working in multiple centres when there was a declared Covid-19 hot spot and said there was a need to make sure there were “adequate staff resources for resident safety”.

“The advice in the greater Melbourne region is it is approximately 4.7 per cent of staff who have worked across different sites … so it is a situation which is very much in the absolute minority of staff,” Mr Hunt said. “But the safety of residents, including vaccination, testing, clinical first responders, coverage for those ill and the capacity for search workforce … this is the reason why the authorities had previously not made a change.

“It is very much something that could be done under public-health orders at the state level.”

A 55-year old female staff member of Arcare Maidstone aged-care home in Melbourne’s west tested positive for the virus on Saturday, despite having her first vaccination dose. No link to the latest Melbourne outbreak, known as the Whittlesea cluster, had yet been established, health officials said on Monday.

A resident at Arcare Maidstone aged-care centre in Melbourne on Monday. Picture: David Crosling

The staff member passed the virus to a 99-year-old resident who had received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, but was still showing mild symptoms and was transferred to hospital on Monday.

The same staff member passed it to a co-worker, who tested ­positive on Monday. That co-worker, who had not been vaccinated due to being on personal leave on May 12 when the facility received its vaccinations, had also worked on May 26, 27 and 28 at the BlueCross nursing home in nearby Sunshine, which was placed in ­immediate lockdown.

Two close contacts of the ­infected workers also worked at two other Melbourne nursing homes run by Freemasons, resulting in the facilities being locked down on Monday. But subsequent tests have come back negative for the virus.

Just 53 of the Arcare 76 residents had consented to being vaccinated, chief executive officer Colin Singh said. The second doses for those residents were brought forward to Monday. The others would be encouraged to vaccinate, Mr Hunt said on Monday.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said there were significant risks when staff worked at more than one aged-care home.

“It is a risk wherever it occurs,” Professor Sutton said.

“It doesn’t matter if it is public or private but the question as to how it is effectively enforced, supported financially or otherwise in terms of policy, is a question for the commonwealth.”

After the deadly outbreak last year, the Andrews government introduced a scheme within its state-run aged-care ­facilities to ensure care workers were only employed at one home.

Despite case numbers in the state falling to zero for months, that program had continued, Mr Foley said on Monday.

Leading Age Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney, who advocated on behalf of the sector, said his members were relying on the advice of medical experts in allowing workers to take shifts in more than one facility.

“The government starts and stops the single site program when community transmission concludes,” Mr Rooney said. “We can only assume the government has that medical advice and that’s why they stand up and stand down these arrangements as required.”

Clare O’Neil, federal Labor’s aged-care spokeswoman, said the federal government continuing to allow aged-care workers to work in multiple settings was “nothing short of gross incompetence”. “They are putting older ­Australians at risk, and it is just completely inexcusable,” she said.