Nurses want aged care homes held accountable for how they spend COVID-19 funding

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) federal secretary Annie Butler said with the funding provided to the aged care sector to manage COVID-19 now amounting to more than $850 million, aged care providers must address chronic understaffing and the ongoing shortages of PPE as a matter of urgency if Australia is to ensure the safety and protection of all nursing home residents.

"We are asking the Government to require aged care providers to publicly demonstrate that the additional resources provided to them are being spent directly on increasing nursing and care skills in their facilities."

Announcing the 205 million in funding Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the latest injection of funds was aimed at ensuring aged care providers can offer reinforced levels of safety and care for those who need it most.

"Senior Australians are highly vulnerable to coronavirus and we are seeing the cost the pandemic is having on facilities around the country," the Prime Minister said.

"This is about keeping those people in residential aged care, protected and safe."

The payment - to all Commonwealth funded residential aged care providers - will be linked to the number of residents being cared for by each facility, and is aimed at covering the additional costs of caring for the health and wellbeing of residents during the pandemic.

The costs include additional staffing, training, supporting visitations and connections and the provision of personal protective equipment.

Facilities outside major metropolitan areas will receive a 50 per cent loading to cover the additional costs of providing care in these areas.

Providers will received around $900 per resident in major metropolitan areas and around $1350 per resident in all other areas.

Ms Butler said, "The Prime Minister said that the new COVID-19 payment for aged care is aimed at reinforcing levels of safety and care for those who need it most but he provided no guarantee to the Australian public that this will actually happen.

"Without clear transparent requirements of providers to publicly account for how they spend these funds, we cannot be confident that the money will be used to implement the safety measures that are urgently needed," Ms Butler said.

"The most important measure to defeat the COVID-19 outbreak is to guarantee that the right numbers of staff with the right level of skills are available to meet all needs of residents. This will require every facility to have: registered nurses on duty on every shift; sufficient numbers of experienced care-workers; and, sufficient additional staff to undertake screening procedures and any other safety measures required.

"Aged care nurses and care-workers are stretched to their limits and are giving their all to provide the best care for their residents in these difficult times.

"Unless processes, which require transparency and accountability for the use of these additional funds, are implemented, our members cannot be sure that the funds will be used to address the problems at the core of the sector's lack of capacity to deal with the pandemic. They are concerned that frail, vulnerable residents, and the nurses and care-workers caring for them, will remain at increased risk from COVID-19.

"We are therefore asking the Government to require aged care providers to publicly demonstrate that the additional resources provided to them are being spent directly on increasing nursing and care skills in their facilities," said Ms Butler.

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