The operator of 13 nursing homes in Victoria offered its staff a $500 bonus if they referred “friends, family or past colleagues” to work in their residences near the height of the coronavirus second wave in the state.
Villa Maria Catholic Homes Chief Executive Sonya Smart emailed service staff to say she was “pleased to introduce our brand new employee referral program.”
“It’s no secret that aged care operators need more staff, due to Covid-19 challenges,” Ms Smart wrote in the email sent at the end of July. “We’d like to offer you the opportunity to invite friends, family or past colleagues to join VMCH to support older people within our aged care residences as a Personal Care Worker.”
As aged care workforces collapsed across the state — either because employees were infected with the coronavirus or stood down to isolate for two weeks at a time — providers became increasingly desperate. Almost 260 aged care funding recipients have died from Covid-19, all but four of them in nursing homes, and the vast majority of them since the beginning of July.
“We’re looking for both qualified and unqualified people,” Ms Smart told her staff. “Think outside the box. If the person has the right ‘heart’ then we’ll provide them with extra support and training. We’ll also provide them with an on-site ‘buddy’ to help them learn the ropes.”
The memo makes no mention of what, if any, formal training was required under its program. Federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck was grilled by the senate select committee investigating the commonwealth response to Covid-19 today, revealing there was no specific workforce surge strategy for the aged care sector.
“There’s not a document,” Senator Colbeck told the inquiry. “There are a series of contracts that we put in place and continue to build on as the demand for workforce has continued to grow in Victoria.” The commonwealth has entered head contract agreements with private agencies and workforce platforms such as Aspen Medical, Mable and Healthcare Australia, among others, to provide back-up staff for the sector. These arrangement are only executed after a Covid-19 outbreak in nursing homes, however, while staff shortages have hit the entire industry as workers typically fill shifts on a casual basis and for multiple providers.
A struggle to fill roles is evident in VMCH’s proposed $500 bonus for staff referrals, regardless of how qualified the candidates are. A former aged care industry employee who forwarded the email said she is “appalled”. “After all that has happened and is still happening, they are offering untrained people positions within a very fragile industry,” she said.
Senator Colbeck told the inquiry today there has been and would be “no limit” to the resources provided by the federal government for any facility experiencing an outbreak. “The workforce is extremely stretched,” he said. “We spend significant time each day working on securing a workforce. There is considerable effort going into this.” In an at times meandering, confused and combative performance at the inquiry, Senator Colbeck and his most senior officials rejected the assertion that the federal government was “absent.”
“I find it offensive. The government wasn't absent. The govt has been there every step of the way,” he said. Although, when pushed, he said he does not “believe it is possible to completely protect all the residents in aged care.” The inquiry heard that Communicable Disease Network Australia guidelines that have been updated three times since the Covid-19 pandemic began were quietly rebranded as a “national aged care plan” by bureaucrats last Thursday, following sharp criticism from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Royal Commission.
“It was a plan that wasn’t called a plan, it was a plan that was actually called guidelines and then became a plan when you didn’t have a plan,” Labor senator Murray Watt said. Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy declined to say who requested this change but added: “Because it is a plan, it can be referred to by people as a plan.”
Ms Smart said that the provider has faced “unprecedented pressure” on its workforce, despite “minimal” Covid-19 cases across the service. “Cases of Covid-19 within VMCH’s 13 aged care residences have been minimal due to our stringent infection control, the correct use of PPE, staff staying away from work if they are ill, and precautionary lockdowns at any hint of an active case. However, like all providers, we still face a significant decrease in our workforce numbers due to a variety of reasons.” She said about 300 people have applied for personal carer roles at VMCH as a result of staff referrals.
Rick Morton is the author of the bestselling One Hundred Years of Dirt. He has been a journalist for 15 years with a particular focus on social policy and national affairs. Rick is the senior reporter for The Saturday Paper.
