Aged care facilities ‘lack staff’

AN audit of Queensland aged care facilities has found chronic understaffing and associated neglect in all 30 of the state’s federal electorates.

Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union Secretary Beth Mohle said checks of more than 80 facilities from Cairns and Cloncurry to Coolangatta found all failed to provide the recommended hours of care.

The audit found elderly Queenslanders were routinely forced to wait for help and were not properly washed, fed, medicated, exercised or turned. They received 1.69 hours of care below the recommended 4.3 hours per resident.

“Nurses, midwives and QNMU staff, tired of federal inaction on aged care, recently took matters into their own hands to conduct a secret audit of aged care facilities,’’ Ms Mohle said.

“Today we reveal the federal electorate breakdown of the audit’s findings.

“The QNMU’s audit has confirmed Queensland’s aged care facilities are in crisis due to chronic understaffing and the complete lack of federal staffing laws in Australia’s private aged care industry.’’

The QNMU audit also found more than 77 per cent of aged care staff were not nurses.