AMA warns Victoria’s aged care system on verge of collapse because of staff self-isolating – ACSA CEO says workers may need to come from interstate

Drastic times call for drastic measures? The President of the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Julian Rait, has told The Guardian it has received numerous messages from doctors warning of an imminent staffing shortage crisis in the sector, with many workers forced into quarantine due to virus exposure and cooks, cleaners, health and administration staff fearful of going to work. “One frontline emergency department director said because of an increasing number of aged care facilities where staff are not attending, care is being impaired and so they are concerned hospitals may get sick patients as well as healthy ones who simply have nowhere to go because no one is there in aged care anymore,” he said. “We are concerned aged care may be so under pressure in just the next few days it will cause collapse and severe system stress.” The transfer of patients between aged care homes and hospitals also placed patients and staff at risk of contracting the virus, he added. New limits on casual and part-time workers working across multiple facilities is also having an impact, with the secretary of the Health Workers Union, Diana Asmar, warning this could lead to an exodus of staff and exacerbate staff shortages, though she added most workers needed whatever money they could still earn. Earlier this week, the Federal Government revealed the plans for private hospitals to support the response to outbreaks in aged care homes plus 400 ‘surge’ staff and funding to enable aged care workers to stay working at a single site. But hospital transfers are still being done on a case-by-case basis and some aged care providers have had COVID positive residents turned away, according to Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) CEO Patricia Sparrow. “If there’s an outbreak, the State Government and public health units are making the calls,” Ms Sparrow said. “If that hasn’t been the case, providers have sent people to hospital and the hospital has turned around and sent them back.” The ACSA CEO said yesterday aged care workers may need to come from interstate to supplement the local workforce. “If there’s an outbreak, the surge workforce will come in and support,” she stated. “When it works, it works well. But we know it’s getting more and more difficult even for the surge workforce, or for the agencies that we would normally go to, to get staff. It’s getting more difficult to get staff across the board. That’s why we think we need an overall plan about how we make sure we’ve got staff and if that does mean bringing staff in from interstate, or using the military, using students who had additional training, we need the staff we need.” “We have got to get it right in Victoria,” she added. “This could happen in another area. So we need a plan to stop what is happening in Victoria, but we need to make sure we can stop it occurring from anywhere else, or if it does happen, we can swing into action very quickly because we know what to do to avoid getting to the point we’re in Victoria right now.”