(Image: Private Media)

“The sector is performing and has performed exceptionally well in the work that it’s doing.” Richard Colbeck, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, February 2, 2022

The COVID death toll in aged care is now heading toward 600 for the year to date. Over 60,000 aged care residents have yet to have a booster shot as infections rise beyond 30,000 across the sector. The joint plea by providers and unions for the ADF to be deployed to alleviate critical staff shortages has been rejected by Scott Morrison.

And a new situation report from the sector warns that we’re not clear on what’s happening in a critical area of aged care, home care.

The report has been prepared by the Australian Aged Care Collaboration, a group formed by the industry’s peak bodies, and shows just how rapidly the tragedy in aged care is evolving — the death toll was 499 on January 31, still up more than a hundred from last weekend, but has since surged over 560 and rising.

On the positive side, the report shows “there has been a significant increase in the number of RATs, masks and face shields delivered in the week to 28 January,” adding, “it is not clear if this is enough to match demand.” Also, “resident vaccination levels in residential care have risen in January to more than 92 per cent.” But:

Workforce shortages remain a critical problem for the sector. Despite revised furloughing rules and a small expansion in surge workforce support (to about 1250 shifts per week), providers report that on average a quarter of shifts (about 140,000 per week in residential care alone) are going unfilled.

Those numbers put in perspective how the government’s insistence there was a “surge workforce” available for the sector was a fiction — it has made only a marginal difference in facilities on a national basis. The report also shows the need for longer-term planning for dealing with future waves: “we need long-term, durable policy solutions that can provide certainty to both providers, workers and older people. There needs to be a transparent process to plan for future COVID-19 waves, including ensuring that supports are part of ongoing programs, rather than ad-hoc measures.”

Worryingly, the report warns that we have little idea of what toll COVID is inflicting in home care — a major component of our aged care system that attracts less coverage because of its non-residential nature. “There is no plausible official data on cases or deaths for clients receiving in-home and community care, with just 18 cases added to official counts in January,” the report says. It makes an attempt to estimate what’s happening in the sub-sector — based on a 27,000-strong sample, it suggests “perhaps 5000 client cases and 12,500 staff cases sector wide.”

By its nature, home care numbers are more reflective of what’s happening in the community than in residential care, and home care providers clearly don’t have the same obligations to their clients as residential facilities. But some of the same issues are in play, particularly staff shortages, infection control protocols for staff and a lack of booster shots. We continue to operate in the dark on the overall impact of the current outbreak on the aged care sector.

The report also takes aim at the government’s attempt to evade responsibility for the mounting death toll by dismissing many of the deaths as of patients in palliative care. Scott Morrison joined Greg Hunt in doing this yesterday. As the report explains, “there is currently no official palliative designation for a person in residential aged care” — only a proposed definition that involves a prognosis of less than three months.

I’ve seen a lot of shabby things from all sides of politics in my time, but Morrison and Hunt trying to wave away hundreds of deaths — usually cut off from their loved ones and spending their last hours alone — because they would have died in a few months anyway is one of the most nauseating things I’ve ever heard. It borders on eugenics.

Crikey will continue to focus on this unfolding horror story. And we feel we owe it the victims and their families that we move beyond the numbers, grisly as they are, and tell the stories of those who have passed and those who continue to suffer in locked-down facilities that can’t find enough staff. We invite readers to send us the stories and pictures of their loved ones in aged care, so that we can give a human face to this public policy disaster.

Would you share with us your stories of loved ones in aged care? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.