Alarm over aged care staff levels

ON the anniversary of the Earle Haven aged care crisis, the Queensland Nurses Union has revealed that an audit into aged care providers shows 64 per cent have cut staff since March, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The investigation, carried out by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, also found Queensland facilities were the worst off for PPE supplies and nurses were doing cleaning duties.

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union secretary Beth Mohle said her union’s members continued to report staff cuts and hour reductions from major private aged care providers.

It comes on the anniversary of the abrupt closure of the Earle Haven nursing home on the Gold Coast, which led to shocking revelations of treatment of the elderly.

The union said the public would assume staff numbers would be ramped up to protect the elderly during the pandemic, but despite a rise of more than $66 billion in taxpayer funds since mid-2014, the numbers were being cut.

“Every nurse cut from this already depleted workforce will increase the likelihood of elderly residents experiencing unnecessary pain, suffering and premature death,’’ Ms Mohle said.

“Nurses know chronic understaffing means elderly Australians are experiencing malnutrition, dehydration, falls, long waits to be changed, to receive medication or to be showered.”