Families of aged care residents in regional Victorian nursing homes say the major political parties need to make hard promises to lift standards in aged care and increase accountability for those doing the wrong thing.
Nurses are also speaking out, saying mandating minimum staffing levels and 24-hour coverage is needed to stop overworked nurses and personal care assistants from burning out while under-resourced.
Kaye Bearin lives in Eaglehawk, near Bendigo, and says she is often doing the work of aged care staff at the nursing home her mother lives at because they are understaffed, overworked, and some are not trained to look for changes in physical abilities or behaviour.
Her 93-year-old mother has been in a Bendigo aged care home for seven years and Ms Bearlin said more enrolled and registered nurses were needed in homes.
"There would be fewer falls, there would be fewer wounds. There'd be fewer bedsores because you've got the staff with the skills, who know what those things are," she said.
"You can't expect personal care assistants to know those things."
Families looking for details in policies
Ahead of the yet-to-be-called federal election, Ms Bearlin said she wanted to see funding tied to improved standards, governance, and accountability.
That way, she said, the money could not be used by age care providers for profit, expansion, or capital funds to expand and buy out other nursing homes.
"They have nurses 24/7 where my mum is, which I know is something that the Labor Party has supported," Ms Bearlin said.
If elected, Labor said it will deliver on 24-hour nursing, get more carers into the system, provide better wages, make sure food standards are met, and make providers report their costs if it wins the election.
A spokesman for the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck, said the Coalition had already provided more than $600 million in wages bonuses for aged care workers and invested more than $18.8 billion to fund vital changes to workforce and governance.
He said the new Australian National Aged Care Classification would distribute funding more equitably across the sector and the new Independent Hospital and Aged Care Pricing Authority will assess the care standards and cost.
'Too much for one person'
Jamie Lovecraft is an enrolled nurse, the level below a registered nurse, and oversees a team of personal care assistants.
He does the medication rounds several times a day for residents, but his role also involves emailing doctors, paperwork, and dressing wounds.
He has been in the industry for 18 months and said while he was not worried about better wages, it was important for other people.
Mr Lovecraft said, for him, patient-staff ratios were the main thing that needed improving and he wanted to see more registered nurses and enrolled nurses in nursing homes.
"I've got the skill set, but it means my other duties are pushed aside. And I think RNs probably feel the same pressure as we do.
"It's just it's too much, honestly, for one person."
Four principles nurses want adhered to
Ian Hardie is a recently retired aged care facility manager and managed nursing homes across New South Wales and Victoria for 30 years before settling in Bendigo.
He said there were four principles of aged care that needed to be mandated across the sector.
"There needs to be more regular, surprise inspections and auditing of nursing homes, and there need to be proper sanctions in place with serious consequences — like the provider losing their licence."
Health Services Union national secretary Lloyd Williams said the next government needed to fix this crisis and he wanted both parties to commit to policies to do so.
"Elderly Australians built this country. We cannot afford to treat people in their later years of life like we are now. It is disrespectful. It is neglectful. Government must review their priorities," he said.
Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federation assistant secretary Madeleine Harradence said the nurse-to-patient ratios were not revolutionary and were already found in hospitals and birthing wards.
She too thinks there should be a registered nurse on-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"There is no law that currently mandates that. People don't understand that people keep talking about no nurses in nursing homes. Well, you need a framework to make sure that that has to happen," she said.
"They need a registered nurse to assist with assessing patients who are unwell, palliative care patients administering analgesia if they're not on-site.
Mr Lovecraft said the government needed to recognise a better workforce would mean a better-working aged care sector.
"You look at numbers, big numbers, like the $2.5 billion the royal commission recommended. It sounds big, it sounds scary.
"This is going to get a bit controversial, but the Liberal government spent $5 billion on some submarines that we didn't even get.
"So, a $5 billion blunder for the military is worth more to them than the people who raised them, than the people who fed them, cared for them, got them into the positions they are now.
"And I can't imagine not being that empathetic."
