The Australian Aged Care Collaboration, a coalition of aged care providers, has joined with unions ANMF, AWU, UWU, HSU, ASU and the ACTU to blame the Federal Government for the low vaccination rates in the sector.
The matter was brought to a head when 70% of the staff at SummitCare in Sydney had to self isolate, leaving only 30% to look after over 200 residents.
A ‘surge’ staff had to be recruited to come into the home at short notice – never ideal as they don’t know the residents and they disrupt the ‘home feel’ of the operations.
Now a fifth worker at SummitCare Baulkham Hills has been diagnosed as having COVID-19 and the residential aged care facility enters its third week of lockdown.
The facility held a briefing with concerned families last night and a family have been unable to say goodbye in person to a resident, who passed away.
The providers and unions demand the Morrison Government implement five principles into a rollout strategy that will support aged care workers to be vaccinated quickly and safely using the Pfizer vaccine only.
They also want prioritisation for aged care workers at vaccination sites near their workplaces and transparency and accountability on vaccine data and supply.
Meanwhile RSL LifeCare has admitted only 27% of its staff have received a first dose and 15% are fully vaccinated across the 28 residential care homes it operates in NSW and the ACT.
RSL LifeCare CEO Graham Millett said the delay is due to a lack of appointments at vaccination hubs and wants pop up clinics run at aged care facilities.
“This is a real hurdle that the government needs to overcome to ensure all aged care workers are entirely vaccinated,” he said.
“The way to achieve this is to have clinics established on-site. This approach has worked for residents and there is no reason it will not work for staff.”
Aged care workers were included in group 1A for priority access to the vaccine and the Morrison Government has set a deadline of 17 September for aged care staff to have the first dose of vaccine to be eligible to stay in the industry.
