4 August 2021
The heartbreaking decision of aged care operator Kindred Living to close the Annie Lockwood Court Hostel in Whyalla amplifies the need for greater government focus on attracting and retaining health care staff in regional areas, including safer staff-to-resident ratios.
The Annie Lockwood Court Hostel will close as of 27 August 2021. Management has indicated that some positions will be available at other sites, however they are offering voluntary redundancy to some staff, for example Enrolled Nurses. They have not ruled out other positions becoming redundant.
Kindred Living has said the reason for the closure is due to its inability to retain and attract sufficient skilled staff to ensure continued safe operation of the Annie Lockwood facilities.
The Annie Lockwood Court Hostel has been under review by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission for breaches of various aged care standards this year.
It was found wanting in eight standards of care, including consumer dignity and choice, personal and clinical care, and complaints and human resources.
The nursing home was also at the centre of an alleged scabies outbreak last year which attracted national and very negative media coverage.
The ANMF will be having further discussions with Kindred Living to ensure that every effort is made to minimise the impact of the closure on our members. We are also planning an urgent member meeting to consult with members. Details of this meeting will be advised shortly.
In the meantime, we acknowledge that this will be a difficult and stressful time for members. We encourage members to seek mental health assistance if you need such as the Nurse and Midwife Support Line on 1800 667 877, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
Members are advised to immediately contact the ANMF Duty Officer on 08 8334 1900 or
[email protected] should they receive any correspondence of concern or have any questions relating to this.
“This decision is absolutely heartbreaking and it really is devastating for the residents themselves, their families, and of course the staff who have been working really hard in those facilities and have done and are doing magnificently in very, very difficult circumstances,’’ ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM told ABC Regional Radio.
“There are issues in attracting and retaining staff in a whole range of areas. A large portion of that is the fact there is a high level of work and uncontrolled workload, basically where you might have, for instance, one registered nurse to even a hundred residents.
“Whereas if you look at over the road, at the public health system, there are ratios, there are requirements to have a certain number of staff to patients. And that brings about the ability to actually provide quality care,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“When you're talking about people who work in aged care, they do it because they are passionate about working with elderly people. And they like working with aged people. They enjoy the ability to interact with them.
“This is one of the things we're constantly hearing from our members, both registered and enrolled nurses and care workers, which is that they just feel so distressed at their inability to provide safe and quality care because the workload is simply too high.
“There does need to be a better focus on attraction and retention of nurses, registered and enrolled, and for those areas where they have residential aged care facilities, care work as well, to provide a workforce for the future.
“I don’t know how you can attract people into an environment where they're asked to care for people, but they are not actually given adequate resources to do that?
“The other element that is a big concern in residential aged care facilities is that of wages. They are consistently paid lower than in the hospital sector,’’ Ms Dabars told the ABC.
“So you do need to consider how do we manage to attract high-quality and good staff into a sector that is highly stressed, highly fractured and very challenging.
“Working with older people is wonderful, but they do have significant care needs. And that is significant work that is currently, quite frankly, undervalued and not regarded highly enough.
“We need the Federal Government to step up more in this space and to put in mandated staffing levels and skills mix so that older Australians are provided adequate and appropriate care in the first place. And then that has the flow-on effect of making sure that the staff can feel more satisfied, that they are able to provide care.
“We also need the State Government to heed our calls to address the issues relating to workforce planning for now and into the future.
“We need a workforce plan in place so we aren’t constantly in a situation where health care sites are competing against each other in a pool of workers that is decreasing at frightening rates.
“To put it simply, there are a number of both federal and state government responsibilities, which, quite frankly, are extremely flawed at the moment. Ultimately that has resulted in a terrible situation where people have lost their home, people have lost their jobs.’’