Help for aged care residents in Alfred’s path, providers’ duty of care

While the impact of Ex-Cyclone Alfred is still being felt in many communities in northern NSW and southeast Queensland, the worst appears to have passed in others.

The ex-tropical cyclone is now moving out west, with communities in north western NSW warned of potential wild weather in the coming days.

The East Kempsey CBD was told to prepare to evacuate on Sunday night with the NSW SES predicting dangerous flooding in the town.

Severe winds are also lashing the state’s south east and heavy rains continue to hit Hervey Bay, which had 230mm of rain in three hours.

At Urangan’s Parklands Aged Care around 20 residents were moved to the nursing home’s second floor amid fears the ground level would be inundated with flooding, the Courier Mail reports.

My message to the community of Hervey Bay. pic.twitter.com/299Oxgeaej

— David Crisafulli (@DavidCrisafulli) March 9, 2025

The National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) is now voicing concerns for the health and wellbeing of rural communities in southern Queensland and northern NSW.

“We are particularly concerned for the people in rural southern Queensland and northern NSW, who are already facing immense healthcare accessibility challenges,” NRHA chief Susi Tegen said.

The Department of Health and Aged Care has reminded Home Care providers of their duty of care during emergency events, including continuity of care and welfare checks.

Last week St Vincent’s Care Queensland jumped into action, evacuating residents and offering refuge to aged care organisation Nareeba Moopi Moopi on North Stradbroke Island, finding beds for 11 of their Indigenous residents.

“St Vincent’s Care has been supporting Moopi Moopi for about 13 years in a range of ways as part of our social justice program and they had 10 elders plus a community client and they asked us if we could help to find somewhere to house those residents until the cyclone threat had passed,” CEO Lincoln Hopper said.

“While our aged care facilities were full we were fortunate that we have St Vincent’s Private Hospital Brisbane at Kangaroo Point close to the city and we had a spare ward which was vacant with 11 beds available so we were more than happy to be able to look after them."

Mr Hopper called St Vincent's Care in south east Queensland a “well-oiled machine” when it come to natural disasters, with 12 aged care facilities in the firing line this time.

“St Vincent’s has had plenty of practice and training in preparing for and dealing for emergencies and natural disasters with Brisbane experiencing several floods over the past decade,” he said.

“We plan for the power to go down for example. We’ve got at least 10 days of supplies – clinical supplies, food, water at each of our aged care facilities. You name it, we’ve got it. We could survive on our own if we have to for 10 days but we hope it won’t be that long.

“We’ve got plans for all of our staff and we think of them and if they might need to stay to care for our residents or if they can’t get to work because of flooding or due to their own personal housing circumstances. We’ve got surge workforce capability where if staff need to attend to their personal homes we can actually grab staff from other parts of St Vincent’s even from interstate if that’s required for a short period.”

Be prepared:

• Service continuity and emergency events in aged care
• Preparing for an emergency event checklist