Staff were advised last week that the cuts would take place at the 65-bed Domain -Sale residential aged care facility which has 50 high-care residents and 15 low-care residents. Domain Aged Care is a Queensland-based for-profit aged care services company.
Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Assistant Secretary Yvonne Chaperon said: "This outrageous proposal will remove residents' access to 420 hours of qualified nursing care every fortnight and will have a detrimental impact on the standard of residents' nursing care in this home.
"There are 50 residents in this home classified by the Commonwealth Government with high-care nursing needs. The home receives additional taxpayer subsidies to provide clinical nursing care to these residents but, as this proposal demonstrates, Domain Aged Care is under no legal obligation to spend that money employing nurses," she said.
"The residents living at Domain Sale require, expect and deserve to be cared for by qualified nurses. Taking away 420 hours of nursing care is a slap in the face to them and their families.
"The aged care resident profile is older and more frail than ever before and they require qualified clinical nursing care to manage chronic, complex diseases such as such as dementia and diabetes and terminal illnesses. Research shows the number of qualified nurses rostered on each shift is linked to the standard of care residents receive and reduces the number of premature deaths and the number of admissions to hospitals for acute care.
"If there are not enough qualified nurses in the nursing home, who will administer residents' medications and ensure there are not mistakes and respond to adverse reactions, who will monitor and manage residents' pain, who will manage residents' nutrition and hydration, who will dress and manage wounds to prevent ulceration or infection, who will monitor, interpret and analyse residents' vital signs and know when a doctor or ambulance is required?" she said.
Victorian public sector aged care facilities are required to have nurse resident ratios of one nurse for every six to seven residents under an agreement negotiated with the Bracks Government. ANF is currently seeking to improve those ratios. Victorian private and not-for profit aged care facilities have never agreed to nurse resident ratios and the Commonwealth Aged Care Act does not require nursing homes to employ a specific number of nurses.
