NSWNMA members have given federal politicians first-hand accounts of how aged care operators are misreporting mandatory direct-care minutes.

Aged Care providers must regularly report direct-care minutes to the Department of Health, Disability and Aged Care (DoHDA).

However, there is no mechanism for staff members to verify whether their rostered time is being reported correctly or not.

A Union delegation met the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae, and other MPs over two days at Parliament House in Canberra.

Among the delegation were Steve King and Bronwyn Pillardth, NSWNMA member leaders who work as Assistants in Nursing (AIN) at NSW South Coast residential facilities.

“We went to Canberra to shine a light on the lack of transparency around the calculating and reporting of care minutes,” Bronwyn said.

“This particularly applies to staff having multiple roles and care staff being allocated duties that are not direct care.”

She said her workplace role “on paper looks like it’s 100 per cent direct care”.

“But I’ve had times where my whole 7.5-hour shift is spent working in the kitchen when they’re short-staffed. I do the dishes, serve meals and take water around to residents.

“On other days there might be two hours when I’ve had to sit in a funding meeting or attend education, for example.

“That should not be counted as direct-care time.

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

“Due to a lack of transparency, I can’t know for sure whether management has deducted that time from the direct-care minutes we are supposed to provide.

“I suspect it is all counted as direct care, because management have never asked me to account for how much time I spend on different tasks during a shift.

“We highlighted a flaw in the reporting system where employers can make it look like what we are doing is direct care work when that is not always the case.

“I told the Minister that if I as the worker don’t even know how my time is being reported, how can anybody else be assured that the reporting system is working.

“If the commission (ACQSC) comes in to do an audit they will look at how many staff are actually rostered on. On paper it might look like we’re fine.”

She said Minister Rae was “very receptive to what we were saying”.

“I feel like he understood what we were reporting to him. He saw the complexity and the severity and the full implications of it.

“He promised the government would look into it, which is no guarantee that action will follow to fix the problem.

COMMUNITY AWARENESS

“If there is no change, we will need to apply more pressure to try to hold them (providers and the government) to account.

“There has to be a greater level of community awareness. We may need to go out and explain to the community what is actually happening.”

Bronwyn said the number of direct-care staff at her own nursing home had increased but so had the number of residents and those with higher care needs.

“There are more staff on the roster and turning up each day, but I hesitate to say whether that is actually delivering the required direct care minutes to residents every day,” she said.