The Nursing Homes We Deserve?

Here is an opinion piece written by the HSU's national secretary Craig Thomson which appeared in the Herald Sun on Thursday January 8, 2004:

Deciding to put an elderly relative into a nursing home or hostel can be one of the hardest decisions a family has to make.

For many people though there is no alternative. A sudden decline in health and the need for 24 hour attention means the best alternative for their parent or grandparent is a caring environment where they can live safely and be properly cared for.

But once that decision is made it can be the start rather than the end of the anguish and trauma for a family. Across the country there are huge shortages of beds, with over 13,000 more beds promised than actually exist. In large areas of our major cities including Sydney and Melbourne waiting lists are impossibly long, forcing families to put their relatives in facilities which are hundreds of kilometres away or not up to the standard they want.

Once they are finally found a place it is hard to know how good the standard of care will be. Some are fantastic but in too many residents are not getting the attention and care they deserve.

One of the biggest problems is that the most basic guarantee - that sufficient staff will be working is not available. There are no minimum staffing standards set down by the federal government to cover nursing homes and hostels in Australia.

That means that there is no guarantee of how many staff will be on at any one shift. In one facility in western Victoria, for three years no staffmember was even rostered on at night. Residents had to phone for help if there was a probleml! It is not unusual to find one personal care worker looking after 50 or 70 residents at night alone in a facility.

A staffing survey completed by the Health Services Union found that over half the staff who responded said they did work they were not paid to do and over two thirds said there was not enough staff in their workplace.

Almost one in four felt there was a danger to their safety in going to work and one in five said residents themselves were in physical danger! If too few staff are on duty the ramifications for the care of residents is obvious: will someone be there if they fall? Are they getting the attention they need to make sure minor problems do not become more serious? Do staff have time to stop and talk to the residents and are hygiene and clinical standards what they should be?

There is also no set requirements on the mix of staff who are required to be on duty. There needs to be a balance between nursing, therapy and personal care staff to ensure proper care. A greater percentage of nurses is needed in high care facilities where the residents are sicker and less in low care or hostel facilities where residents need personal care rather than medical care.

But with the industry expanding and nurse shortages across the globe, the growing personal care workforce needs the training and support to function properly. The base wage can be less than $14 an hour. How is it that you can earn more working in the fast food industry than caring for the most vulnerable members of our community?

There is also no requirement to ensure that all staff are all trained to a minimum standard and are provided with ongoing training and education that will help them establish a career and become more proficient in their work. There are obvious dangers for residents if staff who are handing out medication do not have the training that they should have to ensure they know exactly what they should do.

With a rapidly ageing population the demand for aged care services is going to increase greatly over the next 25 years. Now is the time for us to make sure the quality of that care is appropriate for the most senior members of our community.

© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU)
This page: http://www.hsua.org.au/speeches/1073528127_28771.html
Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 17:19:04 EST

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