Aged care providers will be required to deliver a sector-wide average of 200 care minutes per resident per day from 1 October 2023 – only a few days’ time. Each aged care home will have its own case-mix adjusted care minutes target.

But the March quarter Quarterly Financial Snapshot revealed that as of 31 March 2023, the average care minutes per resident per day for the sector was only 190 minutes.

Of the 200 care minutes, 40 will be required to be delivered by RNs. However, as noted in our Opinion piece above, Australia is currently 3,200 RNs short of being able to achieve the target.

“We’re getting there [to 200 care minutes], but we’re not there yet,” Russell said.
 

“At the RN level, there’s just no more RNs. It’s impossible.”

Russell, who is the CEO of two residential aged care homes in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, QLD, has employed new staff as ‘onboarding officers’ just to ensure the smooth orientation of new employees – adding to his expenses. He said the administration and reporting requirements of the recent reforms, including the staffing reforms, impose heavy costs on his business.

PRESSURE TO FILL SHIFTS

To fill staffing gaps, Russell “from time to time” employs agency staff, but “it’s not sustainable in the long term”, he said. He's been paying monthly agency bills of between $40,000 and $90,000. A colleague recently paid a monthly $120,000 bill on agency staff, Russell said.

RN wages have increased sharply, with some earning annual salaries of $132,000, compared with public health wages of about $105,000.

REGULATORY OVERSIGHT

Russell feels “apprehensive” about the incoming targets.

"The regulators are going to want to punish people who don't comply. I mean, I've already got regulators breathing down my neck for other things. And I know that they just use these as triggers to start other regulatory intervention,” he said.

However, in a recent Regulatory Bulletin in relation to 24/7 RNs and care minutes, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission ACQSC said “a provider that is unable to meet a specific responsibility, but can evidence its ongoing efforts to comply, its provision of safe and quality care to residents at all times, and its effective management of risks to residents, is unlikely to be subject to escalated enforcement action by the ACQSC in the absence of other concerns about compliance or performance.” 

The raft of aged care reforms being implemented has created an “immense” workload, Russell said, “It’s totally unrealistic.”

The Federal Government has provided funding to support the additional care minutes since 1 October 2022.

The SOURCE: Providers are having to ramp up their use of agency staff, adding significantly to costs, as the mandated care minutes come in.