Aged care workers are sceptical the federal government's ambitious planned reforms to the sector can be achieved, a survey shows.
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About half of the 1100 workers canvassed shortly after the May federal election said they planned to leave the sector within the next three years, according to the report published on Monday.
The survey from aged care service consultants CompliSpace showed more than half of the workers believed it would be impossible to achieve new minimum care mandates in the proposed time frames.
The government has introduced legislation requiring all aged care facilities to have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day.
When asked if the government would have to amend its targets for the rollout of the policy, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Labor was following the "necessary" recommendations of the royal commission into aged care.
"It's not surprising at all that aged care workers who are under enormous pressure are concerned. We know that was well documented by the royal commission," he told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.
The prime minister also visited a residential care facility in the southeastern suburb of Frankston with Aged Care Minister Anika Wells.
They will be required to provide residents with a minimum of 215 minutes of care per day from October 2024 under a planned $2.5 billion overhaul of the sector.
CompliSpace chief executive David Griffiths said the increase in care was needed but could not be achieved under existing staffing levels.
He said increased funding was needed to maintain the existing workforce and attract up to 50,000 additional nurses and support staff.
"Without intervention, the residential aged care industry will be drastically understaffed within the next three years, exacerbating an already fragile framework of quality service delivery," Mr Griffiths said.
"Residents will not get the care that workers want to give them and the care that government has legislated. Along with lack of care will come increased risk of harm.
"All politicians are trying their best to navigate their way through these challenges, but workers are emphatically saying the new mandated minimum care standards cannot succeed without a corresponding lift in funding."
Aged and Community Care Providers Association policy general manager Tim Hicks said the sector was facing enormous pressure due to an estimated billion dollar deficit in funding over the past financial year.
"Finding workers to meet the new staffing targets to provide for the required 45 per cent increase in minutes of care by a registered nurse is going to be impossible for many services," he said.
"We need a plan for the immediate short term that recognises many providers will fall short of this target even if all reasonable steps are taken.
"We must not back away from the need to recruit more staff, but we need a practical and realistic plan to get there that avoids adding to the pressure that current staff are already facing."
Legislation responding to the recommendations from the aged care royal commission last month became the first to pass federal parliament under the new Labor government.
It amends the aged care subsidy funding model and introduces new reporting and transparency requirements.
The government has also backed in a pay rise for aged care workers, outlining support for an increase in the minimum wage in the sector to the Fair Work Commission.
Almost half of workers surveyed believed a pay rise of more than 25 per cent, costing taxpayers an additional $4 billion per year, was needed to keep them in the industry.
The commission is expected to report by early next year.
Australian Associated Press
