Aged-care crisis: Narrogin aged-care provider grappling with chronic staff shortages and 16-hour days

A Narrogin aged care provider is grappling with chronic staff shortages as exhausted workers pull marathon shifts to continue providing a vital service. Residential aged care provider Narrogin Cottage Homes and Brookton’s Baptistcare Kalkarni Residential Care have given an insight into how they have been faring through the nationwide aged-care worker shortage. Australia’s aged-care crisis has continued to escalate with the sector facing a shortfall of 35,000 workers in 2022, according to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia’s report in June. The report found staff shortages doubled from 17,000 to 35,000 in less than a year because of circumstances stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and “lack of government action”. NCH runs the Karinya Residential Care facility, which has 36 beds, a dementia unit with 14 beds, and 64 self-contained units of various types. NCH chief executive Carla Sanders said the aged-care provider was dealing with “severe” shortages of care staff and registered nurses. “Like most aged-care facilities we also have a severe shortage of carers — we are currently 10 full-time equivalents short leading to the staff that are still here working overtime, doing double shifts and going without days off,” she said. “They are exhausted and the residents are missing out on the little extras they are used to receiving. “Catering and cleaning staff are also low which has its own set of issues. “During our COVID-19 outbreak we were working at 60 per cent less staff than needed and through the assistance of family members, community volunteers and other non-care staff taking on different roles we managed to get through.” The worker shortages started taking a toll on NCH in December 2021. Ms Sanders said despite extensive advertising they had not been able to replace staff members who resigned last year. “Some days we are down to one carer where we usually have four and all the other disciplines assist — for example, the physio team, occupational therapy team and admin,” she said. “The night staff have stayed up to three hours past their shift finish time to help, or come in earlier to assist. “Some staff are working up to 16 hours a day to help out.” The Narrogin aged-care provider has used locum recruits in the past but Ms Sanders said hiring agency staff was “cost prohibitive”. “It’s currently supply and demand and due to nationwide shortages of registered nurses and care staff the prices they are demanding are reaching extortionist rates,” she said. “As an example, the cost of one agency carer for a seven-hour afternoon shift is the equivalent to the wages of four permanent carers. “We have had to use agency staff in the past as a necessity but the cost was prohibitive.” Baptistcare Kalkarni Residential Care is a 43-bed facility in Brookton and is operating at 100 per cent capacity. The not-for-profit aged-care provider operates 12 residential facilities across Perth and regional WA. “We maintain staffing levels through proactive advertising, refer-a-friend employee incentive programs and a sign-on bonus for hard to fill roles,” Baptistcare acting joint chief executive Amanda Vivian said. “Staffing requirements in all our facilities are constantly monitored and when we identify future shift gaps, we boost our rosters with experienced agency staff or by offering additional hours to our part-time and casual employees. “If we require specialist skills at Kalkarni or Balladong, we can draw on employees from other facilities or our head office team.” Ms Vivian said staff shortages required an innovative approach. “Staffing challenges in regional areas have been an ongoing issue, exacerbated by border closures and immigration limitations during COVID,” she said. “Solutions require an innovative approach to attracting people to the regions including remuneration incentives, housing availability and subsidies, and international visa sponsorship allocations.” NCH has housing available for prospective employees, but Ms Sanders said it was not enough to draw workers from out of town. “Nothing is working anywhere — even aged-care facilities in sought-after regions of Australia like Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay are unable to get staff,” she said. “I have been advised repeatedly by various agencies that incentives are not working. “Staff can cherrypick their placements and so chose not to come to rural and remote regions such as Narrogin.” In July, the Federal Government introduced legislation to deliver its “commitments to fix the crisis in aged care” and its new funding model for residential care. The Aged Care Amendment Bill 2022 will require a registered nurse to be on site in every residential aged-care facility for 24 hours a day, seven days a week from July 2023. “More funding is needed to employ the carers and registered nurses the Aged Care Commission is requiring under our new funding model,” Ms Sanders said. “There has been no promise of that. Where are these staff going to come from? “The commission require a registered nurse 24/7 from July 2023 — where are they coming from?”