Tasmania’s largest aged care provider plans to reduce kitchen staff hours, prompting residents to worry food will take longer to arrive and will be served cold, according to a report in The Mercury.
SCCT has already reduced kitchen hours at its Yaraandoo aged care home by 150 hours.
The not-for-profit provider says the changes have been made following feedback from resident focus groups.
As part of “continuous improvements”, the provider has already introduced electric hot boxes to transport food throughout its homes and uses thermo plate covers and preheated plates to keep food warm.
Robyn Boyd, Chief Executive of SCCT, told The Mercury, “Food temperatures have improved since we’ve implemented these changes.”
Boyd added, “Nothing changes for care staff.”
The Health and Community Services Union assistant state secretary Robbie Moore told The Mercury the proposed changes have upset residents and their families, who feel they are being “let down”.
Moore said as part of the changes, care staff will be asked to serve morning and afternoon tea.
“Those staff are already not able to attend to residents who call, needing assistance to go to the toilet and things like that,” he added.
OH my God! This is a disaster! I think Aged Care need Gordon Ramsey! Boy he would sort the whole system out! This place sounds like it will lose the carers if they keep fogging off all the other employed staff’s work onto them.Most are already picking up the slack for cleaners, Laundry and Kitchen DTs etc. Do they think the carers are going to have time to care anymore. And the poor catering staff out of work! What is goingnon? This is dreadful. I am at a loss to figure out how the Aged Care system can be looked after! Maybe we, the taxpayer need to fully fund the Aged Care System and child care. The government would have to take over! It just gets worse! Alot of big wigs in the Industry have lived well on the elderly and the huge subsidies the government keep throwing at them just doesn’t seem to work.
The minute they called looking after the elderly the ‘Aged Care Industry’ was the minute the elderly became victims of the same profit motive that dominates all aspects of life. Of all the aged care providers, the government run facilities have the least complaints against them. The for-profit (and that includes so-called ‘not for profit’) providers are in it to make a healthy buck or they wouldn’t have invested in the first place. It’s disgusting and another indictment on this dreadful system we live under.
All that Tax payers money spent on a Royal Commission… May as well have flushed it down the toilet for all the good it did for the residents of Aged Care.
Staffing has never been worse in the 16+ years that I have worked in a Nursing Home. It is cut back after cut back….
Unfortunately we live in a very greedy world at the expense of others.
Sadly other providers will take note and follow suite.
I have no words for the disgust I have with regard to what the Government let these so called ‘providers’ get away with… You wouldn’t mind so much if they really were doing it tough and needed to make cuts in the budget but COME ON! REALLY!!!
The above comments are obviously written by the union delegates trying to do something for the huge amount of members pay they are paid for doing nothing. The FACT of the matter is aged care is funded 9 times less than what hospitals are paid.
Yet we are expected to do the same work and quality care as hospitals. On what, I’m sorry good intentions and love doesn’t pay wages. The only reason SCCT is cutting back on staff is because they have spent money on modernising their equipment which then makes the kitchen hands position in the kitchen redundant. If those staff who are having their hours cut want to retain the amount of pay they take home go get a cert 3 and work as a AIN.
Pay the aged care providers the same amount of funding as hospitals so that aged care can have kitchen hands standing around as well. An aged care provider that invests in modern efficient ways of delivering meals in order to provide a better service while reducing costs so they can keep their doors open should be praised.
Unions and whingers start telling the truth about aged care. I work in it as a RN and I see first hand the nurses who are union members that have no compassion just standing around with other nurses when they could be spending that time with the residents.
Stop the BS unions. Governments need to pay the same amount of funding as what hospitals get.
With all due respect Joanna, I disagree that the Gov’t should grant the Aged Care homes with the same amount of funding that the hospitals get. The resident’s pay exorbitant prices for the privilege of living in a care home, then take into consideration the supplements and subsidy’s the Gov’t provide for each person depending on that persons needs and required amount of care.(ACAT funding)
During 2019-2020 Governments spent over $21.5 Billion on Aged Care with almost two thirds spent on Residential care.
The Residential Aged Care Facilities get enough money – no doubt about that, it is just where the money ends up that is the issue.
This makes me so angry that Southern Cross Care continue to make cuts that affect the quality of care of residents . The CEO Richard Sadek was stepped down after the Aged Care Royal Commission was heard in Hobart . When on the stand he said ‘ It didn’t come to his attention from any level of management that cuts in staff equated to lack of quality of care or residents ‘ ! yet on the ground level call bells were going off with no one to attend to residents needs . Residents weren’t taken outside unless they were smokers . All leisure and lifestyle activities were cut on the weekends . Residents meals were often cold and inadequate and the list goes on . Yet they spent tens of millions on renovations at Rosary Gardens but no attention was given to staff / resident ratios . It is shameful and they should loose their accreditation.