 Home Media Resources Patients and Elderly will Suffer - August 21, 2003
Patients and Elderly will Suffer - August 21, 2003
The Health Services Union warned today that the hospital system in Victoria would be severely affected if bans on accepting new nursing home residents were maintained.
The president of the No1 Victorian branch, Jeff Jackson, said by refusing to take patients, nursing homes were exacerbating the winter crisis in hospitals.
"There is clearly a crisis already with overloaded public hospitals and hundreds of elderly people unable to get a bed in an aged care facility,'' he said.
"In areas affected by the bans we can expect to see an immediate impact on the number of hospital beds available for emergency and acute care cases.
"This is a mess the Federal Government has created by turning its back on elderly people who need care.
"The union fully supports extra funding for more beds but it does not want to see elderly people, their families and health staff suffer and bans of this nature are the wrong way to tackle the problem.
"We are also concerned that some employers are trying to shirk their responsibilities to provide safe minimum staffing levels in aged care facilities by stating they do not have enough funding.
"Why is it that some homes have excellent staff numbers and care standards and others of similar size with similar funding have dangerously low staffing levels?"
"That has not been satisfactorily explained to the union. More funding must come but care levels must improve immediately.''
The Health Services Union successfully moved today to have a commitment to campaign for safe staffing levels in nursing homes included for the first time in the official policies of the ACTU at its Congress in Melbourne.
National secretary Craig Thomson, said it was highly significant that the whole union movement was prepared to back the campaign to introduce minimum staffing levels in aged care facilities that the union was running.
"Having no minimum staffing levels in aged care facilities is simply unacceptable. It affects the care of residents and puts lives at risk and it puts staff at risk as well."
Contact Details
Health Services Union
Ph: 03 93413328
Fax: 03 93413329
http://www.hsu.net.au
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