Aged Care Insite Australia's number one aged care news source
The aged care providers peak body has revealed some providers are unable to access antivirals amid 1,013 national outbreaks in nursing homes with over six thousand residents infected.
Two days ago, the government announced the ADF deployment to aged care homes will be reformatted as clinician-led teams, meaning that each of the 12 teams will consist of six military personnel, four general duties personnel and be led by two clinicians.
On top of the Commonwealth’s civilian surge workforce, providers hope it will be enough to counterbalance the current 3,400 aged care workers in Covid isolation and general staffing deficiencies.
The extension of the ADF placement in aged care until 30 September was warmly welcomed by the Aged & Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA), as the program will up the numbers from 25 to 250 extra military personnel.
ACCPA's chief Paul Sadler says while the ADF filling staffing vacancies only touches a small part of the gap, feedback from close to 70 aged care homes confirm it's been "very helpful".
"We hope that by mid-September, when there's an ability to review the ADF deployment, we might see it extended further if needed," he says.
Join Aged Care Insite in a conversation with Sadler about staffing shortages, the planned introduction of two new aged care bills in parliament and Covid restrictions.
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