Defense staff will remain in aged care facilities for another two months as staff shortages continue amid a winter surge in COVID-19 cases.
Key points:
- More than a thousand senior care facilities are dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19
- The Defense Minister says it is an extreme response and not a long-term solution
- An additional 250 people will also be deployed to care centers for the elderly
More than a thousand aged care facilities are battling the outbreak of COVID-19, but defense support first pledged in February this year was due to end in a fortnight.
The federal government said support would now continue until the end of September, alongside an existing commercial workforce contracted until the end of the year.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said the support was an extreme measure, but a necessary one.
“It’s not just about expanding military support for senior care, it’s actually increasing it by up to 250 people through the end of September,” Marles said.
“It’s obviously important to keep in mind that this is not a long-term solution.”
Older People’s Care Minister Anika Wells said ADF personnel would be available in an emergency.
“Aged care providers and individual homes have a responsibility to manage staff, including workforce arrangements,” Ms Wells said.
“When there are insufficient staff during an outbreak, they will be able to ask the Department of Health and Aged Care to deploy a workforce or an ADF team to support them in their immediate crisis.
“The ADF had tried to give up and withdraw from care for the elderly because this is obviously an extreme and desperate measure.”
Ms Wells told ABC People she was working double shifts and no breaks in an “incredibly stressful environment”.
“These shortcomings are not new,” he said.
“These shortcomings are endemic and speak to years of neglect by the previous government.
“This is going to take a while to turn the ‘Queen Mary’ around; no one is getting excited.”
The government has warned that the impact of the Omicron sub-variants is expected to increase over the coming months, intensifying workforce pressures in aged care.
Defense personnel were first sent to aged care facilities by the former government earlier this year, after the Omicron variant of COVID-19 hit the sector.
At the time, the Royal Commissioner for Older People’s Care Lynelle Briggs said the crisis was “completely unacceptable” and the government should have set its strategy after COVID-19 first entered the facilities care facilities for the elderly in 2020.
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