Nurses union says aged care not ready for new outbreak

The aged care sector is prepared “on paper” but the nurses unions says it is missing one vital element to deal with a new outbreak of COVID.

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THERE were grave concerns about the aged care system’s ability to cope with a new outbreak of coronavirus because of low staffing levels, the nurses union says.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery state secretary Emily Shepherd gave evidence to a state parliamentary committee investigating the response to the COVID-19 pandemic today.

She said that while there had been assurances that the sector was ready to cope, her members had told her otherwise.

“We have significant concerns about the aged care sector’s ability to respond,” she told the Public Accounts committee.

“What we hear from the sector is that they’re adequately prepared and that’s great. They are prepared on paper.

“We already know that staffing levels are at an all-time low. There aren’t sufficient numbers of clinical staff to be able to support current residents in residential aged care.

“We know as we’ve seen in Victoria, that if there is a COVID-19 outbreak there won’t be sufficient numbers of staff to care for residents in residential aged care, which will mean that will be an additional workload on our public sector hospitals.

ANMF Tasmania Secretary, Ms Emily Shepherd. Tasmanian peak health bodies release joint statement on the state of our public hospitals Picture: RICHARD JUPE

“Reports we’ve heard from our IMF Victorian branch comrades are absolutely shocking about the state of some of the residents in residential aged care in Victoria and we would hate to see a similar circumstance here in Tasmania.“

And she said that comments by the Prime Minister and the nation’s chief health Officer attributing blame during the northwest outbreak were extremely unhelpful.

“At a time it was just the lowest blow,” she said.

“I mean our members were working incredibly hard, incredibly long hours and they were just absolutely their wit’s end and to have the prime minister and the chief medical officer going out making statements that weren’t backed up by evidence is just absolutely shocking.”

Ms Shepherd said that for example staff at the NRWH found out their hospital was being closed when the premier announced it at a media conference.

Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors, Julie Collins said she had grave doubts about the policing of the aged care sector’s readiness for COVD-19.

“I’m very concerned when you’ve got a regulator that just calls people and says are you ready? And 99 per cent of (providers) say yes, that we move on and think that’s enough. It’s absolutely not enough and we’ve seen that from what’s happened in NSW and Victoria,” Ms Collins said.

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