Aged-care residents are being forced to isolate in their rooms without visits from family members for “weeks on end” as COVID-19 rips through the sector. Government figures show more than 1100 aged-care homes are now battling active outbreaks, with 222 elderly residents dying of COVID-19 in the week to January 27. All the while homes are having to get by with fewer workers.
Source: Booster rollout questioned as COVID aged care outbreaks surge
The ‘let it rip for Christmas’ COVID policies urged by Scott Morrison and Dominic Perrottet have come home to roost where they were always going to – on the elderly. More than 100 aged care homes are now in Tier 0 severe lockdown, the number suffering COVID outbreaks nearly doubling in a week. Rather than “opening up” for family Christmas, thousands of elderly Australians are confined to their rooms today, having a solitary Christmas lunch, denied all visitors, not even allowed to share the meal with their peers. On behalf of the distressed residents, their worried families and the shockingly stretched aged care workers, I invite the Prime Minister and NSW Premier to “stare down” the virus and take “personal responsibility” for a few weeks in solitary confinement, without a personal photographer for company. The tragedy of Christmas 2021 for the residents and staff in aged care facilities has been (almost) unreported.
Source: Aged spend Christmas alone, thanks to PM and Perrottet
Locking out visitors has made it difficult for staff to meet the daily care needs of residents. What an indictment on aged care providers. They receive billions a year in funding, yet rely on the unpaid work of family/friends and volunteers. Surely it is time for complete accountability for their government funding, writes Dr Sarah Russell.
No strings attached: aged care providers have the Coalition wrapped around their little fingers – Michael West
According to Melbourne-based newspaper The Age, the aged care crisis which peaked during the second wave of our recent global health pandemics was years in the making. The implications of COVID-19 for 180,000 elderly Australians in aged care facilities have been such that, well over five hundred succumbed to death while in residential care in Victoria alone. According to The Guardian, up to 40 per cent of those residents came from just ten residential settings.
Aged care residents neglected once again
Locking out visitors has made it difficult for staff to meet the daily care needs of residents. What an indictment on aged care providers. They receive billions a year in funding, yet rely on the unpaid work of family/friends and volunteers. Surely it is time for complete accountability for their government funding, writes Dr Sarah Russell.
No strings attached: aged care providers have the Coalition wrapped around their little fingers – Michael West
By locking down residents, it seems aged care providers are worried about claims for negligence. They should be more worried about being sued for illegal detention. Senior lawyer John W. Wallace reports.
Aged care facilities are homes, not prisons – Michael West
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