In last month’s Victorian state Budget, the Government committed to spending $42 million on public sector residential aged care to “maintain nurse to patient ratios and provide high-quality care to vulnerable older Australians."
The funding will support an additional 30 nurses to provide residential in-reach care to residents at home.
“As part of a $42 million investment we’re recruiting more nurses for our aged care facilities and recruiting more nurses to provide residential in-reach care, so we keep our aged care residents out of hospital and at home - where they recover best,”
A Department of Health spokesperson told the SOURCE.
The Victorian government also announced $162 million to build a new state-of-the-art public sector aged care facilities at Cohuna, Maffra and Numurkah.
In 2015, Victoria became the first state in Australia to introduce nurse to resident ratios for Government-run aged care homes – which make up about 20% of the state’s aged care sector.
These ratios are set at:
- one nurse to seven residents plus one nurse in charge for morning shifts;
- one nurse to eight residents plus one nurse in charge for afternoon shifts; and
- one nurse to 15 residents on night shifts.