Workforce cuts mean ‘too little time to care’

AGED-CARE workers have told a rally in Hobart about slashed workforce numbers, leaving them with “too little time to care”.

Speakers told yesterday’s rally of 100 that older Australians deserved more than they were getting in poorly funded residential and in-home care.

Health and Community Services Union state secretary Tim Jacobson said federal funding had been slashed by $4 billion in recent years.

He said the cuts were being felt across the board, right down to the meals being served.

“People in aged care are being fed for $6 a day ... but in prisons the meals cost $9 a day,” he said.

“As a community we need to do better”.

A recent Bond University study showed aged care homes in Australia spent an average $6.08 per resident to provide three meals a day.

Aged-care workers spoke to the rally at Parliament Lawns about the staff cuts over recent years, which affect Tasmania more acutely because of the state’s larger ratio of elderly.

Worker Mary Stephenson said funds had been ripped from aged care services in the 10 years she had been in the sector.

Ms Stephenson said the regional Tasmanian centre where she worked struggled to afford diversional therapies or excursions for the residents.

“I wish they could be here, because they will tell you: they get bored,” she said.

She said the centre still had a small bus, but rarely had the funds to take residents on excursions.

“We have a bus that’s available but we are finding we may have to ask residents to fork out from their own pockets if we go anywhere,” she said.

Aged-care worker Sally Fox told the rally that staff had been slashed by up to half in important areas, including administration, cleaning and allied health.

The result was that remaining staff were rushed trying to manage the workload and residents did not receive the quality of care they deserved.

“Once upon a time we would have the time to paint a resident’s finger nails or put rollers in their hair. We no longer have the time,” she said.

Tasmanian Labor Senator Anne Urquhart told the rally she once tried to spend a day doing aged-care work.

“I only lasted for three hours and I was absolutely buggered,” she said.

“I worked out quickly you don’t walk in the shoes of an aged care worker – you run.”

Yesterday was the start of a national union-led campaign fighting Federal Government cuts to aged care, with rallies around the country.