Natalie Barr, the host of Sunrise, expressed her outrage at a care home operator's decision that may soon leave hundreds of residents homeless, saying she couldn't comprehend how such a situation could arise.

Wesley Mission, a well-known aged care provider in Sydney, announced that it will be closing all its homes in the city within weeks, including those in Sylvania, Carlingford, and Narrabeen. This sudden move has left nearly 200 residents and their families in a state of crisis.

Wesley Mission cited challenges in meeting new national staffing requirements as the reason for the decision. However, Barr was not satisfied with this explanation and asked pointedly, ‘How is this allowed to happen?’

The morning show host, visibly disturbed by the news, highlighted the already arduous process of finding a suitable aged care facility for loved ones in Australia. She also empathised with the families of the affected residents. 'The families of these people must be in absolute shock,' she said.

Wesley Mission's decision to close all its aged care homes in Sydney will be impacting nearly 200 residents. Credit: Unsplash/BBC Creative.

According to Reverend Stu Cameron, CEO and Superintendent of Wesley Mission, the decision to close the three aged care facilities in Sydney is driven by the challenges faced by the aged care sector in meeting workforce requirements and adjusting to national reforms.

'Wesley Mission supports these once-in-a-generation reforms, improving quality for all care users,' he added.

Reverend Cameron also acknowledged that being a smaller provider in the aged care industry is particularly challenging. Wesley Mission operates only three aged care locations, in contrast to their wide range of community services offered across New South Wales and Australia.

It's important to note that the closure of the facilities will not take place until suitable alternative arrangements are made for all the residents.

Reverend Cameron emphasised that Wesley Mission will be actively supporting residents in finding a new home that meets their individual needs before the anticipated closure at the end of May 2023.

The operator is also committed to assisting the affected staff in finding new roles, either within Wesley Mission or with other providers.

The recent decision by Wesley Mission to close its aged care facilities caught the Department of Health and Aged Care off guard, as they were not made aware of it.

However, the department has confirmed that residents will not be required to move until suitable alternative accommodation has been found, according to information provided to the ABC.

The care home operator cited struggles to meet new national staffing requirements as the reason for the closures. Credit: Unsplash/Josh Appel.

Last year, the aged care minister, Anika Wells, announced significant reforms aimed at improving the quality of care in aged care facilities.

These reforms included the requirement for registered nurses to be available 24/7 from July 1 of this year, as well as an increase in resident care time to 200 minutes per day, including 40 nursing minutes, by October 1.

However, Ms Wells recently admitted that about one in 20 facilities may not meet these targets.

The aged care sector is still facing challenges due to a shortage of staff, although the government is taking steps to attract more people by raising the minimum pay standard by 15% from July.

Wesley Mission also closed its Tebbutt facility in Dundas, north-west Sydney last year due to the inability to carry out necessary building works to meet residents' needs, as noted by Reverend Cameron.

The closure of Wesley Mission's aged care facilities and the challenges faced by the sector highlights the complexities and ongoing reforms in the aged care industry, with a need for continued efforts to ensure the well-being and care of elderly residents.

The ageing care industry is facing a double-edged challenge - not only is it grappling with understaffing and overwhelming burdens, but now it's also dealing with a concerning trend of workers leaving and feeling demotivated to stay. Read more about it here.

Key Takeaways

• Natalie Barr expressed her dismay at Wesley Mission's decision to close its aged care facilities in Sydney, leaving nearly 200 residents and their families in crisis.
• Reverend Stu Cameron, Wesley Mission's CEO, stated that the decision was made due to challenges in meeting national staffing requirements and being a smaller provider in a changing aged care landscape.
• The Department of Health and Aged Care was not informed of Wesley Mission's decision but has emphasised that residents will not be required to move until suitable accommodation is found, and the aged care sector is facing ongoing challenges in meeting staffing requirements and reforms.

As we reflect on Wesley Mission's decision to close its aged care facilities, leaving residents and their families in a state of uncertainty, it's important to consider the impact of ongoing reforms and staffing challenges in the aged care sector.

Members, how do you feel about the situation faced by these residents? Have you or your loved ones experienced similar challenges in accessing quality aged care services? Share your thoughts and experiences with us.

 

[Gsr]

I really don’t believe Wesley mission is trying very hard to meet the new regulations, or any other facilities who say they can’t. I think it is all about the “profit margin” these so called not for profit facilities think they need. What is going to happen to these empty facilities, maybe the government should snap them up and use them to house some of the cities homeless. More likely they will be sold off to developers, demolished and a huge profit made by the developer as blocks of land or unit blocks.

 

[Glo72]

This will be so stressful for the residents as well as their family. We have so many homeless people and now the aged care residents having to find somewhere else to go.

 

[Pamsterdam]

I really don’t believe Wesley mission is trying very hard to meet the new regulations, or any other facilities who say they can’t. I think it is all about the “profit margin” these so called not for profit facilities think they need. What is going to happen to these empty facilities, maybe the government should snap them up and use them to house some of the cities homeless. More likely they will be sold off to developers, demolished and a huge profit made by the developer as blocks of land or unit blocks.

I think the government should snap them up as you say bur for the existing residents who have made a home and a community where they live - at this late stage in their life it is so sad they have an upheaval like this.

 

[TomDevine55]

Yep another religious organisation that has let people down and supervised the deaths of old people during covid. Religious organisations are here to make a profit, not be charged tax at the expense of peoples lives. They use the excuse of not having buildings up to code, old people have had to live in these shitholes for years and still be charged everything they have and not have a say in it. Good riddance.

 

[Ricci]

Unfortunately you can't just magic more nurses out of thin air. It takes years these days to become a nurse and the working conditions of those in Aged Care are not the best so there is very little incentive to go into the sector. We need to support and value these nurses, make it a desirable place to work, after all it takes a very special type of person to work in what is essentially an end of life occupation without it taking a toll on the person.

 

[Milica]

The Gov't needs to be funding the aged care sector by @ least paying the wages to the workers, (not sure if they do?) & paying a decent wage! there is not enough staffing to provide the care that the residents require - For so long now there is always talk about improving the aged care sector, wages and staff ratio, and care standards.
But it seems not much has changed and the elderly are subjected for years to the same standard of care and living conditions-it is outrageous that an elderly person is subjected to this form of living, where is there quality of life - where is the uplifting of staff morale-Get real and pay the staff a decent wage and you just may attract more workers! This will improve staff well-being and improve the quality of care provided to the resident! It is the staff on the ground that are doing the work required, ask them what is needed, they most certainly know, not the fat cats sitting above and out of sight.

This is still an area of Health, residential health - i'm not sure why the Gov't does not have Gov't run aged care facilities. I do wonder what will happen to those buildings-they should certainly be used for the Homeless, they are already equipped for this, bedrooms, showers, kitchen, lounge areas etc. I do hope the elderly are re-housed without too much upheaval and that they are happy with where they are going-it is not like they really have a say or choice!

 

[Cher]

There needs to be a complete overhaul regarding both aged care and disability. Very little has been implemented from the findings of the royal commission regarding aged care. The staff who do work in aged care have been requesting for years that the staff to patient ratio's that are utilised in hospitals be implemented in nursing homes. Now with the shortages of reliable, quality nurses or care staff a lot of single business aged care homes will be closing as the growing demand for workers in aged care, combined with the shrinking supply of younger workers entering the field, highlights a future workforce crisis. Aged-care workers are notoriously underpaid for the level of skill, responsibility, and judgement they exercise. Even employers acknowledge it. The aged care royal commission found low wages, poor conditions, lack of training and poor career pathways to be the principal causes of substandard care. However, what no one realises is that the last pay increase that the nurses received was only for hospital staff it did not include the nurses in the aged care sector, the strikes that the media speaks about that happen with the nurses is also to do with hospital nurses not the nurses in aged care sector.
As for the disability sector, there needs to be a royal commission especially where NDIS is concerned. Most of the providers do not have properly qualified workers and the workers that are qualified are the new grads from university (do not get me wrong they need to learn), they usually only stay working with a person for 2 - 3 months, then that person leaves, and the cycle begins once again. The person with the disability is not receiving proper treatment. The disability sector needs to be governed in the same way as APHRA does by having a register of people who have done the required courses (yes, care workers should be completing courses - make it mandatory).
Throw in a person who has a disability and being a senior in the mix, then you have after the age of 65 no access to NDIS, you utilise my aged care which will not cover your requirements that NDIS provided.

The maximum basic daily fee is $58.98 per day, or $21,527.70 per year in residential facilities, the government only pays $28.00 towards the daily fee.

 

[Gsr]

Wages for aged care nurses are very poor. When I worked in aged care my daughter worked at Woolworths and got paid over $2 an hour more than I did. I was running a day respite program where I had total care of my clients every need, and their needs were great as a lot of them were suffering some form of dementia. My daughter was serving in the deli in Woolworths, go figure. I loved working in aged care but left to work in retail as we had a change of manager, who was an RN and she was not a nice person, she constantly inferred I was no good at my job, made negative comments about how I ran my program etc etc. needless to say after I left the facility soon lost funding for the day respite program for not meeting standards expected. I had successfully run it for over four years. My new job also paid over $3 an hour more than my aged care job. Now a lot of facilities are mostly staffed by agency nurses and carers who get paid more an hour than the facility employed staff. It also costs the facility more for wages as they pay a lot more to the agencies who supply the staff than it costs them to have their own staff. I also found when my mother in law was in care, that there are always different staff working at the facility, a lot of whom never get to know the people they are caring for and their families, and a lot of them I’m sure are only there because they can’t get another job so they don’t really care about the people, it is just about the money. This is one reason why the standards of care are not as they should be.

 

[TomDevine55]

Unfortunately you can't just magic more nurses out of thin air. It takes years these days to become a nurse and the working conditions of those in Aged Care are not the best so there is very little incentive to go into the sector. We need to support and value these nurses, make it a desirable place to work, after all it takes a very special type of person to work in what is essentially an end of life occupation without it taking a toll on the person.

These are Certificate nurses and some have little grasp of the situation in a nursing home NOT Registered Nurses. There is a vast difference, one can be trained on the job and supervised the other goes to uni and usually there is only of of those per shift (sometimes not) going on my previous experience. Please stop calling it aged care as this is only a place for old people to go and die because they cant or wont be looked after on the outside. Look at the stats during COVID and still happening because of the lack of training by some of these people and their incompetent management.

 

[Milica]

They are aged care providers and facilities-or are they referred to as?
Is there another name for these? Aged care is where people are being looked after, in
health and quality of life on a daily basis, pallitive care is where a person is being looked
after when they are going to die, & everything that can be done for them has been.
These people are also looked after.

 

[MindyMac]

I bet these aged care facilities have had $major offers from building companies and $hidden cash handovers to them to make this all happen. Stating that it's a Need To because they have deliberately failed to navigate the expenses of running a care/nursing home. I reckon The Accidentally on Purpose .... is exactly what has happened here. Just everyone wait. These buildings will come down and multi storey apartments or luxury 3-4 storey townhouses are built. But expect multi-storey apartment buildings. They want to make a $Motzbank. CASH Money handed over in envelopes to those who allowed this to happen. Making out that they care. If the monies do not go into their own bank accounts it will happen to their spouses and/or they get one of the apartments hidden under the spouse's name or maybe their parent, or child and later signed over to them. Maybe sold for $1.

When the news aired on the nightly news a week ago all I saw were anomalies. Lots and lots of anomalies.

 

[Gsr]

Oh my, we are a cynical lot. Fancy thinking these owners have an ulterior motive for closing down their facilities. Haha hahaha.