Resident/Staff ratios.

[Snappo]

Can someone please help me understand the following. At an aged care facility, there has been some concern about the number of residents that a staff member has to care for. The staff member complained, and was advised "the level of care, number of residents in the wing and the number of staff required to manage them, is monitored and managed according to the blah blah blah Agreement". This Agreement has been read from cover to cover, and there is absolutely no mention of anyone monitoring or managing anything!! In fact, there is no mention at all of staff levels. Anyway, how can they monitor and manage if they have never even been in to see what goes on?

Does anyone have an answer to this? Please?

[industrystandard]

What agreement, Snappo? The enterprise bargaining agreement?

[Snappo]

Hi Industrystandard, thanks for your reply, I was hoping you would take a look. Yes, its the Agreement between the aged care facility and the ANF. I reiterate, it says nothing about the monitoring or management of staff/resident ratios. Also noted was that we are employed as AIN's, but the Duty Statement is for a CSE2, is there a difference??

[industrystandard]

I'd be very surprised if any-one had been able to negotiate staffng levels within an EB. It's unheard of, in my experience. If any-one knows differently, I'd like to hear. As you know, staffing levels are the responsibility of the approved provider:

AGED CARE ACT 1997
- SECT 54-1 Responsibilities of approved providers
(1)
The responsibilities of an approved provider in relation to the quality of the aged care that the approved provider provides are as follows:

(a)
to provide such care and services as are specified in the Quality of Care Principles in respect of aged care of the type in question;
(b)
to maintain an adequate number of appropriately skilled staff to ensure that the care needs of care recipients are met;

I don't know the difference between AINs and CSE2s. It's likely to be irrelevant and that the EB covers any-one working to that job description. It's unlikely that the employer would try and circumvent an EB because EBs provide both the employer and employees with protection.

[Snappo]

So, what is this, then, Industrystandard, just lip service? How can they say that the levels are monitored and managed when they blatantly aren't? Isn't it illegal to write BS on a legal document? The only mention I can see anywhere that even vaguely supports a certain level of staff, is in the Quality of Care Principles 2.9 'Support for residents with cognitive impairment'. In it it says words to the effect that they are to have individual attention, but I guess management could argue that changing them after an incontinence episode is 'individual attention'!! Loopholes conveniently everywhere....

[Administrator]

Aged Care Crisis suggests an urgent review of the meagre staffing requirement (a brief line in the 453 page Aged Care Act 1997 - namely: "41-3 (1) (a) (i) appropriate staffing to meet the nursing and personal care needs of the person" should be taking a lot more of the Ageing Minister's attention.

The lives of frail Australians are at risk because of this dangerous, laissez faire policy. Hospitals, schools and child care centres must adhere to set staffing levels. Why are facilities which provide end-of-life care exempt?

Frail older people across Australia are at risk because aged-care proprietors are not required to adhere to mandated staff/resident ratios."

A recent report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare highlights the fact that the age and number of residents requiring high-level care is increasing. The time when people make the greatest use of health and aged-care services is during the last two years of life — regardless of age.

There is evidence that residents of aged-care facilities regularly go without proper pain relief and palliative care. Failures include poor infection control, inadequate clinical care, failure to provide safe medication management, and inappropriate use of physical and chemical restraints.

[industrystandard]

Isn't it illegal to write BS on a legal document?

What document is it written on?

[Snappo]

The document this is written on is an investigative report, "In Anticipation of legal proceedings" from a workplace investigation company.

Part of my claim was that my MI was suffered because the wing was understaffed, 1 carer for 16 dementia (combined high/low care) residents. They claimed that the level of care, number of residents in the Claimant's wing and the number of staff required to manage them, is monitored and managed according to the -------------Agreement. It's in this agreement that I can't find any mention of the monitoring or managing of anything.

This report has so many errors for dates, times, events, it is laughable. They couldn't even get my date of commencement of employment or rate of pay correct, and that is merely the start!

Fortunately, at this stage, I don't need this report as I have 2 doctors and a professor of medicine who have all stated that work stress contributed to the MI, and that's all I have to prove to recover my lost wages.

[industrystandard]

It sounds like any lawyer worth their salt would be able to pull it apart. Generally speaking, these sorts of things hold little weight but rather, are designed to intimidate.

[Snappo]

Ta, lovely, Industrystandard, we'll find out in a couple of months when the case goes to court!!