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Close to 20 per cent of Australian rural and remote aged care facilities may apply for an exemption to the mandated requirement to have nurses on site 24/7, due to come into effect by July next year.
Associate Professor of Nursing Maree Bernoth from Charles Sturt University says that while some aged care homes will need more time to acquire staff, she worries about the exemption lacking a time limit.
"If you receive an exemption, then it should be a requirement to have a plan to address why you asked for one," Maree says.
"It's fine to ask for an exemption in the short-term, but then it should not stop there."
Join Aged Care Insite in a conversation with Maree about workforce shortages in rural and remote areas and what we can do to solve the problem.
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I hope the irony isn’t lost on all. The nice little rural facilities have become unviable. All the talk about small “homey” facilities must now be out the window because they bleed money and impossible to staff.
The reality of residential care,and the future, is that anything under a hundred beds will eventually be forced to close simply because they can’t be comparably funded into the future.