10 February 2022
After weeks of urging from the ANMF and the union movement, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week finally announced the deployment of Australian Defence Force (ADF) troops to assist aged care facilities in “acute situations”.
Mr Morrison had previously refused to consider using the ADF but will now send in 1,700 troops.
The move follows calls by the ANMF, aged care providers and other unions last month for the PM to deploy the ADF to provide emergency support and assistance to overwhelmed aged care workers at nursing homes across the country.
With the Government under fire from widespread outrage at the deaths and spread of Delta and Omicron in aged care and the chronic shortage of workers, Mr Morrison said there will be four teams placed at 24 hours’ notice to move to assist where needed, The Advertiser reports.
It will increase to up to 10 teams at 24 hours’ notice to go into acute situations, working together, with the health departments and public health agencies in each of the states and territories and the Aged Care Minister.
Mr Morrison said the teams will include a registered nurse team leader, some medical technicians and personnel to support general duties. He stopped short of saying they would replace ongoing labour shortages because of staff lost to COVID.
“In each state and territory, it will begin with around 50 personnel going to support each state and up to 200,’’ he said.
Unions and aged care providers said the deployment would not go anywhere near to covering lost shifts and questioned why it didn’t happen earlier.
ANFM federal secretary Annie Butler, quoted in The Australian, said: “It has been three weeks since these matters were first proposed by us and others, and really it is just a stopgap measure that will assist but is nowhere near a solution.
“We’re still seeing the effects in aged care of Delta, not just Omicron, and this announcement won’t prevent deaths over the next few weeks. How many hundreds have died since we first called for this?”