One-fifth of aged care workers say they plan to resign in the wake of the Covid crisis, according to a union survey.
On Thursday, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation released a survey of nearly 1,000 workers in aged care, with 37% of respondents saying they planned to quit the sector within the next one to five years, with another 21% planning to leave within the next 12 months.
The ANMF said survey respondents cited “a severe and overwhelming lack of staff”, and “feelings of hopelessness and abandonment”. Many staff said they were “exhausted, demoralised, and resigned”.
The survey quoted one worker, said to be a 66-year-old enrolled nurse from South Australia, who said: “I don’t think it can be fixed. No one wants to come out and work in the regional areas. Employees rather retire from the health system completely. Or resign and look for other employment not in the health system.”
Also quoted was a 38-year-old registered nurse from the Northern Territory, who said: “Too late now. Nothing can be done.”
The results of the survey were released as it was revealed the federal government’s deployment of defence force personnel into aged care homes to fill Covid-related staff shortages had fallen short of expectations, currently contributing just 269 more workers.
Facilities hosting Australian defence force staff said they were “delighted” at the “fantastic” help provided, but others complained the help had come too late after the summer staff crisis had already peaked, and would not go far enough to address structural issues in aged care.
“It’s not very clear to us what impact it’s had. We’ve had reports saying it’s been good and helpful, but there’s been quite a bit of confusion,” said Annie Butler, federal secretary for the ANMF.
“So many preventable deaths have occurred.”
The Coalition government announced on 7 February it would deploy up to 1,700 Australian defence force personnel into aged care homes, to help plug crippling staff shortages forced by Covid infection or isolation. In late January, the government reported 1,261 aged care homes with active Covid outbreaks – nearly 46% of all homes in the country – with 14,257 staff and 9,643 residents infected.
Aged care providers and workers’ unions had pleaded for army support to assist in clinical and non-clinical tasks like cleaning, cooking and waste disposal.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, stressed at the time the ADF was “not a shadow workforce and cannot replace skilled aged care workers”, but said defence would help plug staffing gaps.
Nearly a month on, the Department of Defence told Guardian Australia that 269 ADF personnel were “on task” in the aged care response as of Monday. That included 167 assisting in general duties, 84 in more specialist clinical or rapid response roles, and 18 in central planning or logistical roles.
Guardian Australia also asked the Department of Health how many facilities were currently hosting ADF staff, and how many had requested help. Health did not respond by publication time.
Several aged care providers and peak bodies stressed that part of the reason for the discrepancy between the number of ADF staff promised and the number deployed was because Covid numbers and outbreaks in the sector had significantly decreased, creating fewer staff shortages.
The federal government’s most recent aged care Covid snapshot, as of 24 February, found 286 active outbreaks, 2,623 active cases among staff and 2,754 among residents.
“It’s really come down substantially in the last few weeks,” said Paul Sadler, of the Aged Care Services Australia peak body.
“But for the number of homes that needed it at the height of the challenge, the help wasn’t offered by the government until it was too late for many of them.”
Sadler said feedback he’d received from facilities hosting ADF staff was “overwhelmingly very positive”, saying the army had helped immensely in socialising with residents and freeing up trained aged care workers to perform more specialised tasks.
“They key issue was the timing … to some extent, the ADF did what they did when they thought they could do it, but that wasn’t communicated to the sector,” Sadler said.
“It was an unfortunate response from the government, but when they reversed course, we said ‘thank you very much’ and did our best to facilitate.”
Sean Rooney, of Leading Age Services Australia, another peak body, also welcomed the ADF, but said it should have come sooner.
“Many of our members would say it’s too little, too late. We were calling for this support in early January, but later the Omicron wave was receding, so the demand wasn’t there,” he said.
He called the ADF support a “positive experience” but said it highlighted the need for wide overhauls in aged care to better attract and retain staff.
Clare O’Neil, Labor’s shadow minister for aged care services, said the ADF involvement was “necessary” but she harboured “great concern” about its rollout.
“We keep discovering that very few ADF personnel are actually on the ground, in the homes, literally helping out,” she claimed.
“The sector asked for this support as a matter of urgency some 10 weeks ago. After this mid-summer request, the government inexplicably sat on its hands, and many thousands of elderly Australians suffered and hundreds died.”
Butler said the ANMF – a leading voice in initially calling for army help – had received reports from facilities who were hesitant about requesting ADF support, for fear of attracting negative publicity or “negative attention” from sector regulators.
“It’s not working as it was promised,” she claimed.
“Had they addressed it when we first asked for it, it could have been a really meaningful input.”
Pay and conditions for aged care workers, as well as strategies for the sector to retain and attract staff, is likely to be a significant factor in the coming federal election.
The Coalition has pledged two $400 cash bonuses to aged care workers before the expected May polling date, while Labor has pledged to make a submission to a Fair Work Commission process investigating pay rises for staff.