HORROR TALE OF NEGLECT
PANDEMIC ADDS TO CHALLENGES FACING ‘UNKIND’ SYSTEM
AUSTRALIA’S aged-care homes were failing before the Covid-19 pandemic swept through killing more than 1700 elderly residents and leaving thousands more infected.
Frail residents were locked in their rooms for weeks and denied visitors, while catastrophic staff shortages meant they were not showered for days, fed properly or even given their medicines.
Last year a damning royal commission found the industry “neglected” elderly people, was “a sad and shocking system that diminishes Australia as a nation” and was “unkind and uncaring”.
Commissioners Richard Tracey and Lynell Briggs said care was substandard and unsafe and staff were “underpaid, undervalued and insufficiently trained”. They called for between $2bn and $20bn in extra funding.
A News Corp investigation found aged-care homes currently receive an average $93,000 per resident per year but there is no way of tracking how that is spent.
Providers claim they are going bust, but some nursinghome owners flaunt prestige cars, including Maseratis, and live in multimillion-dollar mansions, while others hide their assets offshore. Many homes are owned by overseas private equity firms.
Health Services Union national secretary Lloyd Williams said the sector was “seriously on its knees” and the single biggest issue was how to stop workers leaving the industry.
Wages needed to be lifted from $22 an hour to $29 and a proper career structure be put in place to attract people, he said.
“Around 70 per cent of workers are casuals or work part-time hours,” Mr Williams said.
“Some are doing multiple jobs to eke out a living. That’s why we can’t fill a quarter of the shifts in aged care and why residents are lying in bed with soiled clothing. It’s a deplorable situation.”
A United Workers Unions survey found staff morale is so low that more than three in four workers intend to leave the industry within five years.
The Fair Work Commission is investigating a bid for a pay rise for workers, but the Morrison government is not supporting this and instead has offered two one-off payments of $400 to aged-care workers.
Labor has said it will put in a submission to the Fair Work Commission supporting a permanent wage rise if it wins the election.
Meanwhile about 100,000 people are waiting for an aged-care package to cover the cost of cleaners, gardeners and carers so they can age in their own home.
Wait times for top-level home-care packages are up to two years, and providers take more than a third of the money in administration fees.
Aged and Community Services Australia CEO Paul Sadler, who represents notfor-profit, church and charitable providers, supports a lift in workers wages, but also wants an increase in government subsidies for covering infection prevention.
Sean Rooney from Leading Aged Services Australia supports a lift in wages and wants the government to set up a new Covid co-ordination centre to make sure the sector is properly resourced and ready for any future waves.
Currently, aged-care residents who go public about their poor care are getting booted out of their homes, and whistleblower staff are banned from speaking to the media.
Aged Care Crisis spokeswoman Lynda Saltarelli said an integrated, independent and supported complaints system must be set up.
Providers must also be vetted by regional aged-care managers before being allowed to provide services to that community, she said.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck has been heavily criticised for his poor management of the pandemic and recently had to apologise for going to the cricket instead of fronting a parliamentary inquiry into the aged-care crisis.
Aged Care Matters director Sarah Russell said the pandemic had highlighted the “systematic failures in the aged-care sector”.
The government’s lack of planning led to unnecessary deaths in homes, she said.
Advocacy groups such as Wounds Australia said the government could save itself up to $1.5bn if it adopted its 11 points, which included proper training for wound management.
Dietitians Australia said just providing better-quality food could help heal wounds and save on bandages.
Last month News Corp revealed some providers were spending as little as $4 a day on food per person, with people going hungry.
CEO Robert Hunt said a $10 government food supplement introduced following the royal commission’s report was not always being spent on food, but on staying afloat, with many struggling to make ends meet with the increased spending on infection control.
Stewart Brown, a chartered accountancy firm, found that more than 56 per cent of facilities were operating at a loss last year.
Despite promises of $17.7bn in extra funding for aged care in response to the royal commission, major reforms including an independent pricing authority are not yet in place.