Chaos rules in aged care

“THERE is no way I would ever put my family into an aged-care facility,” says a Gold Coast aged-care worker fed up with how governments have allowed the elderly to be treated behind closed doors.

It comes as the final report by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is due to be handed to the federal government on Friday, nearly two years after the Earle Haven nursing home debacle in which 69 vulnerable pensioners were evacuated from their Gold Coast residence in the middle of night after a contract dispute went wrong.

“When I first started 10 years ago, the people arriving into care wouldn’t necessarily need their toileting and showers done, but they are living at home for longer now and only coming into residential care when they are really high needs,” said the worker, who did not want to be named.

“So now we have to assist with almost every single need, even feeding every meal to them.”

She said residents often soiled themselves or fell while trying to get out of bed while waiting for a staff member already attending to another person.

She added that the aged-care system was outdated and needed a major overhaul that included surprise visits to aged-care residences and a higher patient-to-staff ratio.

“It’s very chaotic,” the worker said. “You really need good timemanagement skills to get through the day otherwise it’s disastrous for staff and residents.

“They’re getting us to do more and more tasks and by doing that, we don’t have the time to even chat with them as we shower them.

“Residents are becoming institutionalised because they’re in such a routine because of what we’re having to do just to get through the shift each day.

“And when we’re held up for a few minutes, it’s very distressing for them.

“It’s their home and they shouldn’t have to wait — we should have the time to care for them properly.

“We don’t do it for the money, in fact I think we’d be paid more if we were stacking shelves at Coles, but we do it because we care.”

Meanwhile, the United Workers Union has called for a “big picture” overhaul after a survey of 3000 workers, including 700 from Queensland, found that four-in-five aged-care staff felt older Australians were not getting the quality care they deserved because of understaffing.

It also said heavy workloads were affecting care and safety, with 51 per cent of workers saying residents faced an unfilled shift every day.