The state nurses union’s campaign has made headlines that aged care staff numbers are being shrunk during the pandemic, but both of the Queensland operators have hit back at claims that they are slashing staff.
The QNMU had claimed last week that Blue Care planned to make a number of nurses and carers at 28 of its aged care homes across Queensland redundant.
The union also said TriCare had reduced the number of beds at its Mt Gravatt home from 140 to 120 with the roster restructured to reduce nurses and care workers’ hours.
The QNMU took both operators to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to seek details on the reductions and is currently calling on its members to send the Aged Care Minister, Senator Richard Colbeck, a message asking him to stop the cuts.
The Not For Profit UnitingCare Queensland, which operates Blue Care’s 56 aged care homes across the state, tells us however that the recent claims made by the QNMU are “factually incorrect and misleading”.
“The very small number of adjustments recently made in some of our aged care teams, have affected less than a quarter of one percent (0.25%) of our entire aged care workforce, and the majority of the employees affected have been successfully redeployed into other newly created roles,” they told us in a statement.
“Our net number of aged care employees has not decreased in 2020, in fact we are regularly recruiting registered nurses, enrolled nurses and personal carers across all of Blue Care,” they added. “When making these small adjustments, our residents, clients and employees are always at the centre of our approach.”
TriCare, a family-run operator with 15 aged care homes plus nine retirement villages, also gave us a response, confirming that seven staff (three at Mt Gravatt and four at its Toowoomba home) had been made redundant because of reduced occupancy at both homes, in part due to COVID-19.
“This decline in occupancy is consistent with a small, but steady decline in occupancy across the aged care industry,” they said in a statement.
“TriCare currently employs 1,629 staff across our aged care residences. While the loss of a job is difficult and challenging for every employee, these 7 redundancies represent less than 0.5% of our workforce.”
“Changes to some employees hours and days of work at our Mt Gravatt and Toowoomba aged care residences have occurred, but these changes are broadly increases or decreases of less than two hours per week.”
“Some casual staff at our Sunnybank Hills Aged Care Residence have been converted to permanent part-time status. This benefits both our residents with improved continuity of care and our staff with better security of employment. Minor amendments to the roster have resulted in an overall increase in staff hours.”
“The recent opening of a 20-bed extension at our Upper Mt Gravatt Aged Care Residence will result in an increase in staffing at that residence as occupancy increases in the coming weeks.”
“All significant changes to rosters (including the abovementioned Mt Gravatt and Toowoomba changes) include consultation with the affected staff.”
“Staffing at all our aged care residences is determined by occupancy, resident needs and ensuring the appropriate mix of staff over the 24-hour period. Smaller residences like Annerley Aged Care Residence and Upper Mt Gravatt Aged Care Residence have higher staff hours per resident.”
The statements indicate the challenges facing providers during the pandemic. With occupancy falling, fewer residents mean less funding which foots the bill for staffing costs.
Yet if providers alter their staffing to address these issues, they face the wrath of families, unions, community and the Government.
Both Senator Colbeck and Queensland’s Health Minister and Deputy Premier, Steven Miles, have publicly expressed concern over the reductions in addition to the media scrutiny of the changes.
It would seem that the Ministers did not do their homework before speaking out.
