July 3, 2022

richard colbeck

UNION WIN: Government commits to provide Pfizer access and worksite vaccinations in aged care

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Aged Care providers, unions and their members, frustrated at the failures of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, have secured key commitments from the federal government regarding vaccinations for aged care staff.

Representatives from the Australian Aged Care Collaboration – the peak body of aged care providers – as well as unions representing workers from aged care met with key decision makers on Monday to discuss major concerns around resident and worker safety. Present at the meeting were ministers Greg Hunt and Richard Colbeck (with portfolios in health and aged care respectively) and Lieutenant General John Frewen, Commander of the Vaccine Taskforce.

The group collectively called on the government to immediately address the following five key principles that are essential to the success of the vaccine rollout for all aged care workers:

  1. Resident and worker safety
  2. Government funded in-reach workplace vaccination programs and prioritised access to Pfizer vaccination
  3. Paid vaccination leave
  4. Targeted vaccine education and communication
  5. Transparency and accountability on vaccine data and supply

As a result of the meeting, Minister Hunt and Lt General Frewen committed to removing the key barriers for aged care workers (and aged care facilities) in accessing COVID-19 vaccinations. This included:

  • Ensuring access to priority and supply of Pfizer as outlined in the initial rollout plan. All aged care workers, regardless of age, will have access to Pfizer (though can choose AstraZeneca if preferred or indicated). Unions and providers also requested transparency over and quarantining of supply of Pfizer for aged care workers
  • On-site workplace vaccination – currently being negotiated through several channels, which include:
    1. ‘Self-vaccination’ by aged care facilities with capacity
    2. Continued in-reach by companies previously contracted for aged care in-reach
    3. Engagement of states to assist in delivery of in-reach vaccination
    4. ‘Hub and spoke’ arrangement with Public Health Networks and Residential Aged Care Facilities (this model is still being explored)
  • Genuine priority access to vaccination via other channels, e.g. state vaccination hubs and GP clinics. Priority access was already meant to be happening, however this has not been occurring in practice. The government committed to ensuring this occurs.
  • Support to access vaccination, and recover from effects if needed, through paid vaccination leave. Unions and providers acknowledged the initial commitment of $11m is a good start to support aged care workers but as it only applies to casual employees, is still not good enough. The Minister was clear that he would explore what funding could be organised to extend paid vaccination leave to all

Representatives from the joint union/aged care provider group will meet with the Department of Health and vaccination task force three times a week for the next two weeks to provide input into the processes for implementation of the above.

The full group, including ministers and Lt General Frewen, will meet on 26 July to evaluate progress.

Join a union that wins results for members in the aged care sector. Join the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association today.

Asleep at the wheel

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The Morrison government and its federal health department failed to prepare the aged care sector after COVID-19’s deadly strike on two Sydney nursing homes.

The Morrison government and its bureaucrats failed to act to defend nursing homes even after COVID-19 tore through facilities in Europe and the USA, and 25 residents died at Newmarch House and Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Sydney.

Federal government inaction was exposed during hearings at the aged care royal commission.

Counsel assisting the com-mission, Peter Rozen QC, said the federal government “was firmly on notice early in 2020” about the challenges the aged care sector would face from COVID-19.

However, the sector had been “hindered in its response by a lack of coordinated planning by all levels of government.”

Rozen said there was “reason to think that in the crucial months between the Newmarch House outbreak in April and mid-June, a degree of self-congratulation and even hubris was displayed by the Commonwealth government.”

He noted that the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, claimed in late July that “aged care around the country has been immensely prepared”.

Rozen said aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, wrote to nursing home operators on 7 July telling them they had “responded incredibly well to the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19”.

“Although the minister urged continued vigilance and warned that the battle was not yet over, there was no real sense of urgency in the letter,” Mr Rozen said.

“There was no suggestion, for example, that providers should consider asking their employees to wear masks.”

Lessons from Newmarch House and Dorothy Henderson Lodge “were not properly conveyed to the sector and as a result the sector was not properly prepared in June 2020 when we witnessed high levels of community transmission of the virus in Melbourne”.

“Based on the evidence you have heard the sector is not properly prepared now.” (14 August)

Rather than accepting responsibility for the sector it is supposed to regulate, the Morrison government tried to distance itself and blame the Victorian government.

COVID-19 had killed 550 Victorian nursing home residents by 10 September.

Federal government failed to learn lessons

As political commentator Niki Savva noted in The Australian newspaper: “No one seriously believes or expects that every one of those deaths could have been avoided. However, the question not properly answered is why it took so long for the Morrison government to act in an area it controls.

“It was the federal government’s duty to develop a rapid-response plan months ago, particularly after (deaths) in Newmarch House and Dorothy Henderson Lodge in NSW in March and April. It still hasn’t been done,” Savva said (20 August).

The federal Department of Health commissioned Professor Lyn Gilbert, chairperson of the department’s Infection Control Expert Group, to do an independent study of the COVID-19 outbreak at Dorothy Henderson Lodge “to understand what occurred and what could be learned from the experience”.

Prof Gilbert’s report warned of problems in keeping staff, recruiting agency nurses and sending residents to hospital during the nation’s first major COVID-19 outbreak in an aged care home.

Her report went to the department on 14 April, but it did not make it public until August, when Victorian nursing homes had already suffered almost 200 deaths.

Federal health depart-ment secretary, Brendan Murphy, argued in July that authorities could not foresee the sudden withdrawal of most workers from the St Basil’s home in Melbourne because it had not happened elsewhere.

However, three months earlier, Prof Gilbert’s report had warned Murphy’s department of lessons from Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House, where an estimated 87 per cent of workers had to go into quarantine.

Secretary Murphy and Minister Colbeck also maintained that the public had no right to know which Victorian aged care facilities had COVID-19 cases.

At a hearing of the Senate committee monitoring the government’s response to the pandemic, Greens senator Rachel Siewert sought this information, asking for details of providers, cases and deaths.

Murphy asked if he could provide the information to the committee in secret.

“Some of the facilities don’t want it publicly known that they have outbreaks,” Murphy said. “And they’re obviously worried about reputational issues.”

Staff cuts continue despite pandemic

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Rather than employing more workers to cope with COVID-19, many nursing homes have cut staff numbers.

Sixty-four per cent of aged care workers reported staff cuts since the beginning of March, a survey by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) revealed.

ANMF federal secretary, Annie Butler, told the Aged Care Royal Commission that it took more than a month, and media attention, to be granted a meeting with the federal aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, to discuss the “astonishing” issue.

“There was supposed to be money dedicated specifically for increasing staffing and skills but there’s no accountability. There’s no checking of where that money has gone,” Annie said.

“In Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and some parts of NSW, aged care providers are actually cutting staff.

“We were told at the time we did our survey that some providers had cut staff from 1 March but over the last month or two, the feedback from members and even from employers directly, is that their cutting [of] staff has increased.”

Annie also said members had reported “incredible breaches of infection control”, with workers telling the union “they could only use one glove rather than two” to conserve PPE while others were “told to reuse equipment – put it in collective plastic bags”.

Most of the 1513 members who took part in the ANMF survey were from NSW, Queensland and Victoria, were AiNs/PCWs, were women, and worked part-time.

Prominent victims of staff cuts were casual workers forced to choose between employers as they were only permitted to work at one facility.

Agency staff were also reported to be particularly impacted by cuts.

Staff cuts were more common at facilities owned by for-profit providers.

Almost half (43 per cent) of participants did not feel prepared for a COVID-19 outbreak in their workplace.

Minister doesn’t want to know

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ANMF federal secretary, Annie Butler, has called on the Morrison government to work with nursing unions to fix the crisis in aged care.

“Since the start of the pandemic the ANMF has written and been in contact with aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, on at least eight occasions, offering our help and advice on the mounting issues plaguing the sector, particularly around inadequate staffing, shortages of PPE and other workforce support measures,” she said.

“Unfortunately, the government has not responded and has not implemented actions, which may have provided better protections for elderly Australians.

“The untold grief and trauma that too many have already had to experience cannot be undone, but the government has the power, and the responsibility, to take our advice and act immediately on our action plan.”

The plan includes:

  • No more cuts to nursing and care.
  • Ensure sufficient numbers of qualified staff with the right skills mix and mandate minimum nursing/care hours, to properly prepare a suitably skilled workforce in the event of further infection outbreaks.
  • Ensure enough PPE and clear guidance, education and training for all aged care staff.
  • Guarantee paid pandemic leave for all workers who need to stay home because they need to get tested and self-isolate due to exposure to COVID-19 or they’re feeling unwell.

Government breaks another promise to aged care workers

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The country’s largest union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), says the Federal Government has broken another promise to aged care workers at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 – by taxing their ‘retention bonus’.

In March, the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Richard Colbeck, wrote to thousands of low-paid aged care workers, promising them a bonus payment of ‘up to $800 after tax’, but the most recent update from the Department of Health shows that the payment will now be considered as income and will be taxed accordingly.

“The retention bonus has been clouded in confusion from the start; clear details and information regarding how the bonus will work, who will be eligible, and how applications can be made, have not been forthcoming. We’ve also been told by some of our members that their employers aren’t even aware that the bonus scheme exists,” ANMF Federal Secretary, Annie Butler, said today.

“The ANMF has been in regular contact with the Minister throughout the pandemic, assisting, as much as possible, in developing and implementing the response to COVID-19 in aged care facilities and in the wider community, but despite all good intentions, the Minister has reneged on his promise of providing these heroic aged care workers with the full bonus.

“This bonus was intended to recognise the dedication and commitment aged care workers have continued to show in treating and protecting older Australians during the crisis, potentially putting their own safety and their families’ safety at risk. But just as we’ve gained control over the pandemic, aged care-workers have weathered that storm and we’re on the path to recovery, the Government has backflipped on its promise, which was in writing to every aged care worker, and now said ‘we don’t actually think you’re worth the full amount’.

“Understandably, our affected members in aged care are dismayed and disappointed, but they’re not surprised, it’s far from the first time they’ve been let down by the Government.

“In addition, ANMF members working in nursing, midwifery and aged care, will also be disproportionately impacted by the Government’s announcement that Australia’s full childcare assistance program will end on 12 July.

“In times of crisis, our members often become the sole income-earners in their families; this has continued to be the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. While families continue to struggle as the country takes the long path to economic recovery, it’s critical that we continue to support those still in work and recognise the vital importance of female dominated industries in that recovery.”

9 June, 2020

ANMF media release authorised by Annie Butler, ANMF Federal Secretary. 1/365 Queen St, Melbourne.

An open letter to the Minister for Aged Care

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Philippa Wright wrote this letter to Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck.

I’m writing with great concern about the lockdown at aged care facilities. I understand why this is being done, but I feel the whole process hasn’t been well thought through.

My father-in-law is in a nursing home, he’s 94, has some dementia and is deaf. He normally has his son, who’s retired, visit three times a week. His daughter visited on Sundays and would take him out for lunch.

Now he and thousands of other old people are stuck in these homes with no visitors, no stimulation and no one who loves and cares for them around them. This is appalling. The staff are run off their feet and don’t have time to do anything but basic care and now my father-in-law can’t feed himself, I seriously wonder how much food he’s actually getting.

He has a big appetite and when he was feeding himself, he was eating very well. When the staff have to feed several people, it’s a feed-them-as-quickly-as possible attitude and move on to the next one, which isn’t their fault, it’s a staffing issue.

I feel that maybe a family member could visit once a week to check on their loved one and give them some care and stimulation so they don’t deteriorate over the next six months whilst this lockdown is happening.

They could have their temperature taken and be asked some questions prior to coming in to visit. I realise that’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than what’s happening now. Another thing that could be done is a Skype call to the family once a week so the aged person still sees their family.

My father-in-law wouldn’t understand why no one is visiting him. I am a nurse myself so I have a good understanding of all these issues and I would like to see something done about it before it’s too late. It’s cruel to deny these oldies contact with their families. Please look again at this issue.