Catholic Health Australia (CHA), representing the largest non-government group of aged care homes in the country is calling for the federal government to act now to stem the workers crisis which has led to the closure of homes in recent weeks.
Pat Garcia, CHA chief executive said, “The extreme shortage of aged care workers is putting the viability of homes across the country at risk, especially in regional areas.
“The federal government has two massive levers it can pull right now to help alleviate the crisis. Firstly, it can advise the Fair Work Commission to significantly boost aged care wages. Secondly, it can put personal care and nursing support workers on the priority skills list for immigration.
“I honestly don’t understand why either of these actions has been delayed to date, given the seriousness of the staffing crisis in aged care. We have seen several homes closing in the past month and I know we will see more following soon if we don’t get access to workers,” Mr Garcia said.
The global demand for aged care workers is high and Mr Garcia says to fix the crisis now, the government could make Australia a more attractive option for aged care workers overseas. He suggested several options including easing pathways to permanent residency and making it simpler for employers in rural areas by removing visa application fees.
Long term, Mr Garcia believes, “we need higher wages to ensure there’s a healthy pipeline of labour domestically into aged care where we know demand is going to rise sharply.”
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