Australian Army nurse Corporal Ryan Sulcas with Glenys Sellwood at Tanunda Lutheran Home. Photo: ADF
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) are assisting aged care operators with staffing hit by COVID-19 in Queensland, Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania – but the Government claims many operators are turning down the help.
Michael Lye (pictured below), Commonwealth Department of Health Deputy Secretary for Ageing and Aged Care, told the Senate Estimates Community Affairs Legislation Committee in Canberra yesterday that providers were refusing the assistance of the ADF.
He said there were 117 ADF members working to assist residential aged care operators but figures provided to the Committee showed that 45 ADF personnel were at eight residential aged care (RAC) homes in Victoria, 25 were at six RACs in QLD, 12 were at three RACS in NSW, 18 were at three RACS in SA and six at one home in WA. Tasmania’s Deputy Premier and Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff said on Tuesday that the ADF had been called in to support three of five aged care homes hit by staff with COVID-19.
The ADF has the capability to expand its initial commitment of 50 members per State to up to 200 personnel in each State and Territory, or up to 1,700 personnel if required, but Mr Lye said providers that the Government believed needed support had refused the offer of ADF help.
Mr Lye said the Department of Health was assisting 112 aged care homes, whose operators have been unable to maintain an adequate supply of staff, and of those 20 RAC homes were of a concern. He also said that it was matching retired medical staff to aged care homes that needed extra staff. Further, an offer of medical graduates and personal care workers had not been taken up by operators.
Lee Martin (photo), CEO of Tanunda Lutheran Home (TLH), 70km northeast of Adelaide, said he too was aware of operators refusing ADF assistance and urged providers who need help to use the ADF as he asks for a second extension of their help at his home, the largest outside of Adelaide. Not one of 120 residents at TLH has caught COVID-19, yet a lot of the staff have the virus or are close contacts of.
“We were struggling with staffing before COVID and now I can’t get enough emergency staff beyond 50% of what I need. The ADF has been absolutely wonderful – the residents do not want them to go home, particularly the women! What they are doing is beyond all expectations,” he said.
“I have a nursing officer, with a lot of experience of working with COVID in Victoria, and four enrolled nurses, who also have similar experience.”
