Hours reduced at Blue Care
Union says 637 direct care hours will be lost at aged care facility
STAFFING levels at Blue Care’s Toowoomba Village Aged Care Facility are again in the spotlight, this time after the organisation reportedly told staff at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon they would be reducing hours.
The Chronicle has spoken to people who were present at the meeting, who confirmed a Blue Care manager said five personal carer or assistant in nursing shifts would be removed from the daily roster, in addition to the removal of one registered nurse from the night shift.
All up, the reported reduction in direct nurse to patient care hours amounts to 637 hours cut from the fortnightly roster.
The reduction in care hours comes off the back of initial cuts announced by the organisation in October 2017, which saw nine enrolled nurses handed redundancies and prompted outrage from the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union.
QNMU secretary Beth Mohle yesterday said Blue Care had again “lowered the bar on the provision of quality aged care”.
A Blue Care spokeswoman denied the roster changes amounted to staffing cuts, saying in a statement that “QNMU’S claims that Blue Care has announced staffing cuts yesterday is simply not true”.
The spokeswoman said: “As is regular standard practice, site rosters are being reviewed to ensure we continue to the meet the changing needs of residents.”
“Nursing care required by residents, also known as ‘acuity’, varies greatly between individual residents and facilities, and constantly fluctuates; Blue Care must apply flexible staffing models that can deliver an appropriate skills-mix for the changing occupancy levels and changing needs of residents at each individual site,” she said.
Ms Mohle said greatly reduced care could mean the difference between life and death for residents.
“Blue Care can use all the corporate language they like. But these cuts will hurt Toowoomba’s elderly and those who care for them.
“There is no minimum requirement for staff in Australian aged care. This means aged care providers like Blue Care can and do continue to cut staff to boost surplus. They face no penalties or punishment for doing this.”
A Blue Care spokeswoman said, on average, Blue Care staffing levels were in line or higher than industry standards.
“The concept of mandated staff ratios in aged care has been circulating for some time; however, there remains no substantive evidence that they achieve better health outcomes for residents.”