A story we may well see played out here in Australia.
The wellbeing of staff – and the number of aged care workers needed in the future – will be the subject of a new Government inquiry.
Health and Social Care Committee Chair, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP (pictured above), said: “The resilience of the National Health Service (NHS) and social care [aged care] staff to deliver care during the COVID-19 pandemic has been tested to the limits.”
MPs are calling for evidence from providers to assess the impact of the increased pressures brought by COVID-19 as well as the resilience of services to cope with high levels of staff stress, after a majority of the country’s providers reported concern about burnout among their staff.
The Government will also consider the healthcare workforce planning measures – as set out in the NHS People Plan – to ensure the levels of staffing are sufficient to avoid burnout and to meet the needs of future challenges.
The fact that the Government doesn’t have an equivalent workforce plan for its aged care sector –and how parity with the NHS could be achieved will also be considered.
“We need a rigorous assessment of the overall numbers that will be needed to deliver services over a ten-year period, and how many people we should be training in order to meet that target,” Rt Hon Hunt stated.
