With just two weeks until the Federal Government’s deadline for residential aged care workers to have had at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, it appears the majority of staff will be vaccinated by the 17 September deadline – but there will be consequences for those who aren’t.
The Federal Government held a national webinar yesterday morning for all residential aged care providers and facility management with the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck (pictured below right) to address concerns around workforce COVID-19 vaccination.
The Minister said that he expects the sector will meet the target with 83.4 per cent of residential workers having received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 62 per cent having received their second dose as of yesterday.
Senator Colbeck also noted that 89 per cent of residents have now received a first dose and 84 per cent a second dose.
200 facilities falling short
Overall, 212 of Australia’s more than 2,700 aged care facilities have recorded a 100 per cent vaccination with 1,682 facilities sitting at between 80 and 100 per cent.
Around 30 private and Not For Profit providers have also worked to vaccinate their own staff in-house – around 58,000 aged care staff in total.
However, there were also 197 facilities reporting that less than 50 per cent of their staff are vaccinated.
With Victoria due to issue its vaccination orders which start on 16 September – a day ahead of the deadline that all the other States and Territories are working to – there were concerns from some operators that a number of their staff will not be vaccinated by the deadline, either by choice or because of a lack of access to a vaccine.
But while the Government representatives were sympathetic to the operators’ concerns, they made it clear that the mandate would apply to all staff employed by facilities and those work on site – including administrative, lifestyle, transport, maintenance allied health staff, and General Practitioners and other health professionals.
“We rely on you to manage the safety of your site,” Deputy Secretary of the Ageing and Aged Care Group , Michael Lye, told the audience.
Few medical exemptions
It was also stressed that there would be few medical exemptions.
Some states have allowed for exemptions where an insufficient number of workers having a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine would endanger the safety and quality of care – but there would be few instances of this, the Department said.
The representatives promised to engage strongly on plans for these providers with potential measures to ensure resident’s safety including the use of masks, PPE and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing.
The Department urged operators facing challenges in vaccinating their staff to contact them directly for assistance – but the message was clear: the mandate is required to support and protect older Australians.
Minister Colbeck pointed out that aged care residents made up 75 per cent of COVID-19 deaths last year – in 2021, aged care residents have only accounted for 10 per cent of COVID-related deaths.
A great reason for all of us to roll up our sleeves and ensure we are doing what we can to protect the elderly and vulnerable in our community.
