If the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that aged care is in desperate need of reform.
As much as most Australians recognise that, meaningful reforms will be impossible without the injection of 25,000 new employees into the industry’s workforce.
That’s the stark reality the country is faced with, according to Department of Health documents.
Released last week as part of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the documents show that the department’s calculations are forecasting a shortfall of registered nurses (RN) and nurse practitioners (NP) in the order of 11,758 for the 2023-24 financial year and another 12,836in 2024-25, for a total of 24,594.
In addition, the shortfall in the number of Personal Care Workers (PCWs), is also set to blow out, with the documents showing a gap of 13,679 in 2023-24 and 26,902 in 2024-25.
These shortfalls are at odds with the Albanese government’s ability to honour its aged care reforms, which will require aged care homes to have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day from July, and mandate a minimum 200 care minutes per resident each day from October.
The aged care sector has been under pressure for some years now, with the situation exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.
However, other factors have also been involved. One of the most significant of those is a phenomenon known as ‘hospital exit block’.
Hospital exit blocks occur when patients who are eligible and safe for release cannot be discharged because they are unable to access aged care services. The issue was highlighted in a report published last month by the Australian Medical Association.
The report says the phenomenon is “a symptom of a healthcare system that is struggling to meet community demand for health and social services”.
The most common reasons for exit blocks are patients waiting for appropriate aged care (such as a place in a residential aged care facility or a home-care package at the right level), or for disability care.
In theory, the government’s reforms will go a long way towards addressing these blocks, but the FOI documents suggest that achieving them within the slated time frame will be next to impossible.
One development that should help to close the workforce gap has been a 15 per cent pay rise for aged care workers, awarded last year by the Fair Work Commission.
The likely impact of that pay rise, an increase in aged care workforce numbers, was not factored into the calculations made in the released document.
According to a spokesperson for aged care minister Anika Wells, there are signs already of the gap closing, with the department’s most recent figures indicating the gap had shrunk by more than 3000 since November.
That’s good news, but such a rate of improvement would mean the government’s July target will not be attainable across the entire industry.
The Health Department has acknowledged this, with a department spokesperson announcing that 5 per cent of facilities, mainly in regional and remote areas, would be eligible for a 12-month exemption from the 24/7 requirement to give them more time to transition.
It seems that, just as access to aged care is a waiting game for individuals, an aged care overhaul is a waiting game for the entire industry.
Do you have a family member in, or waiting for access to, aged care? What sort of experiences have you had? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?