“Left high and dry”:Councils look to end in-home help for elderly Victorians,which could strain the state’s aged care system.
Aged care homes may conjure up images of bingo and tea but this is a distant reality for a sector housing older and frailer residents,facility manager Gaynor Squillacioti says.
Private providers are taking over from some Victorian councils to provide in-home aged care despite lacking the staff to service all the additional clients.
A meeting of the aged care sector will feed into next month’s jobs and skills summit as the government considers how to fund an anticipated pay rise for the industry.
Barbara Rimington received in-home care from Mornington Peninsula council until it handed the service to a private provider and told her it would be monitoring her situation. “Pig’s arse they are,” she says.
The federal government has told the Fair Work Commission pay rates in the sector should be “significantly higher” without nominating a figure.
Elderly residents in Boroondara are without in-home care after a privatised aged care provider failed to supply staff for the services after taking over from the council.
Lynelle Briggs has warned of an exodus of childcare workers under a system that devalues a care economy dominated by women.
The Albanese government has quietly wound up the Operation COVID Shield vaccination program,despite millions of Australians being overdue for their boosters.
The opposition says the government has “capitulated to the unions” by removing the schedule on worker screening from legislation to reform the troubled sector.
The pair argued that giving evidence to the inquest about the deadly St Basil’s COVID-19 outbreak could incriminate them in other court matters. But the Supreme Court has compelled them to testify.