Media Release
31 July 2008
Australian Government’s commitment to aged care is promising:
The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) welcomed the Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot’s announcement that the Australian government is committed to quality aged care achieved through adequate staffing.
Ged Kearney, ANF federal secretary, said the Minister’s comments are an indication that the Australian government is committed to addressing the crisis that exists in aged care and to ensuring that vulnerable older Australians receive high quality care from the appropriate professional.
“Ensuring that aged care residents are cared for by an appropriately skilled workforce and that there are enough people caring for them is key to keeping these deserving Australian’s well and out of hospital.”
Ms Kearney warned that unless the government introduced an appropriate mix of qualified nurses as part of the adequate staffing levels the problems would persist.
“We urge the Australian government to act to solve this crisis in aged care by ensuring minimum staffing levels and skill mix, closing the wages gap for nurses, and ensuring the licensing of all aged care workers.”
The ANF believes that the dedicated nurses working in aged care are at breaking point because of impossible workloads and a lack of support, there is no incentive for them to stay in an industry which continually offers chronically poor pay and conditions.
This was an ALP election promise and the ANF is ready to contribute to this process.
“There are 280,000 nurses in Australia, making up well over 50% of the health care workforce. Nurses know health care and they understand aged care. Nurses will bring professional experience and an enormous amount of knowledge, skill and compassion to aged care reform.”
Media inquiries:
Ged Kearney, Federal Secretary 0417 053 322
Lee Thomas, ANF Assistant Federal Secretary, 0419 576 590
Libby Muir, ANF Communications Officer, 0413 834 979
The ANF, representing nearly 160,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in