Hostel Report Prompts Call for Ministerial Intervention Oct 14 2003

The Health Services Union is calling for the urgent intervention of the new Aged Care Minister Julie Bishop after revelations about terrible conditions facing staff and residents at a Melbourne aged care hostel.

The official report into Armitage Manor Hostel in Windsor which has just become available reveals a litany of problems including totally inadequate staff numbers and training, inappropriate clinical care and handling of medication.

The Department of Health and Ageing found that there was an immediate and severe risk to the health, safety, and well being of the residents some of who were found to be underweight.

The report stated that care staff were assigned to do laundry in their non-existent spare time meaning some residents are left without underwear and had to wash their own.

One staff member was left alone with 60 residents at night.

Conditions were found to be so bad by inspectors from the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency that the hostel failed 25 of 44 federal
accreditation standards- the worst performance in recent years in Victoria.

HSU Victorian No1 branch secretary Jeff Jackson said that the staffing situation in Aged Care was getting ridiculous and that staff were not to blame for poor conditions.

" We are finding Hostels and homes across the state where residents are not getting the care they need because there is not enough staff to do the work." he said.

" This is a huge problem across the sector that needs addressing. The HSU will be visiting this home in the next day to assess staffing ratios at the Hostel for ourselves."

One staff member at the Hostel said that staffing levels were having a huge bearing on how staff did their job.

"We are constantly under stress because we do not have enough time to perform the work that we were trained and employed to do - look after residents," the staffmember who could not be named said.

"Our duty of care is to them but we are spending less
and less time caring as we are asked to do paper work and other duties"

The most serious breaches saw residents being administered the wrong medication, residents losing weight unmonitored and no proper recording of treatment or medication and inadequate staff training and education.

Mr Jackson said Ms Bishop needed to urgently step in to lift scrutiny on homes and ensure minimum staffing levels were introduced across the country to give residents and their families a guarantee of quality care.

© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU)
This page: http://www.hsua.org.au/media/1066084840_12416.html
Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 17:19:04 EST