Families could be barred from visiting loved ones in aged care at Christmas due to Omicron
Christmas-time confusion over aged care home visitor restrictions could mean some families miss out on seeing loved ones, advocates say.
There are already different rules in Australia state by state, and at different homes within states, with the spread of the Omicron variant creating a highly volatile situation.
Advocates are pushing for coherent guidelines, and calling for a balance to be struck so residents are protected but not completely isolated.
Aged Care and Community Services chief executive officer Paul Sadler said without guidance some homes would overreact and not even allow essential visitors, while there was also a risk of Omicron spreading through homes over Christmas.
“It’s a balance of risks issue,” he said. “It’s about being cautious without being overreactive.
“The risk is if the current circumstances continue and we don’t get guidance from the states and territories that we’ll end up with some people able to see family, and some not.”
There are 54 outbreaks in residential aged care facilities, according to the federal health department’s most recent snapshot. There have been almost 600 over the course of the pandemic.
The Council on the Ageing (Cota) has worked with aged care provider, carer and consumer peak organisations including ACSA to develop a visitor code for the industry, and is waiting for an updated, draft version to be approved by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
The AHPCC is the health emergency decision-making body, comprising all state and territory health ministers, and headed by chief medical officer Paul Kelly.
Cota chief executive officer Ian Yates said agreement from federal and state authorities had proven “elusive” and that during consultation, feedback was “contradictory from one jurisdiction to another”.
“Last year our problem was providers, this year it’s state health authorities,” he said.
“There have been significant problems with different approaches in different states, and within states between different regions, and that means that aged care facilities are confused.
“And families then get very confused.” Both Cota and Acsa want every resident to have the right to an essential visitor, someone who comes every day or two or three times a week, with appropriate controls.
“Someone who gets to know the rules, who understands, who is fully vaccinated … so there is trust between the facility and them,” Yates said.
Most residential homes are privately owned but approved by the federal government, and can be for-profit or not-for-profit. Others are owned and run by state governments.
Yates said without a set of consistent rules, providers struggle.
“Really good providers are managing this well, they communicate it well and they have good staff who they have trained and supported but middle-of-the-road providers struggle because they need a set of rules to follow, many of them don’t have the communications skills and there are all sorts of staff shortages.”
Sadler said the code needed to be approved . He said Acsa and others would write to all health ministers outlining their concerns on behalf of the aged-care sector about the inconsistent advice.
“If they don’t have a consistent process, we could have another St Basil’s where significant numbers of staff are stood down,” he said.
At St Basil’s, a Victorian aged care home, 45 residents died from Covid. A further five died from neglect after the workforce started falling ill and were forced to quarantine without adequate replacements.
Acsa is also part of an alliance calling for free or cheaper rapid antigen tests to screen for infections.
Guardian Australia has contacted the AHPCC via the federal health department for comment.