A consortium of 11 aged care providers in regional Victoria would like to see the 24/7 RN Supplement expanded to include aged care homes providing effective ‘alternative arrangements’ when 24/7 RN coverage cannot be achieved.
David Reece is CEO of AdventCare, which owns a 42-bed home in Warburton, 76km east of Melbourne.
David told The SOURCE their Warburton home will not meet the 24/7 RN requirement, which comes in on 1 July 2023, but the home is fully accredited.
In regional towns, “there’s such competition [for RNs] that they just can’t get nurses, they might fill two thirds of the roster, but they’ll never fill it all,” David said.
The Federal Government is offering the 24/7 RN Supplement to help smaller providers employ extra RNs needed to meet the new 24/7 RN requirement. It will only be available to homes with an average of 60 residents or fewer per day – and that can meet the 24/7 RN requirement.
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For our facility in Warburton, that’s more than $15,000 a month – that’s $180,000 a year,” David said – but they will not be entitled to the Supplement as they will not be able to meet the 24/7 requirement.
David has formed the consortium of 11 providers, which operate homes of a range of sizes, and all have alternative models of care that are “working” in towns around Victoria, David said.
David and the consortium would like to see the Supplement expanded to providers that are successfully delivering ‘alternative models’ of care to 24/7 RNs.
In April, the Federal Government commissioned the University of Wollongong to develop alternative care models that might be suitable when RNs are not available.
A study by the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative estimated in May 2023 that nearly 6,000 RNs will be needed to meet the new 24/7 RNs requirements.
The SOURCE: Significant changes are coming in from 1 July 2023 – including the requirement for 24/7 RN coverage in residential aged care. Some providers, particularly those in regional areas, won’t be able to meet the target due to the lack of available staff, despite providers’ concerted efforts. Will there be movement in the future on alternative models for these providers?