Nursing and care services threatened in aged care

Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) and Bankwest have released an Aged Care Industry Index, which reported that three quarters of 258 aged care operators surveyed are finding it increasingly difficult to find enrolled and registered nurses.

Rod Young, ACAA chief executive officer, said “finding sufficient nurses is fundamental to maintain quality services in residential care”.

“We must be able to pay our staff competitive wages otherwise it is unlikely we will attract sufficient nurses to the industry or convince nurses to stay in the industry.

“What we can pay nurses depends entirely on what the government pays aged care providers to run aged care services. To be competitive the Federal Government must increase the subsidy level to match what state governments are paying hospital nurses,” he said.

“States like WA are already experiencing severe staffing pressures due to the mining boom and unless we can pay competitive rates for our nursing staff, it is likely that parts of the country will shortly face a staffing crisis that is likely to effect the capacity of the industry to admit new residents.”