Unlike other states that have softened their first-jab-minimum stance to offer providers more leeway, NSW has remained steadfast on the September 17 deadline.
Figures released by the federal government’s vaccination taskforce show that 95.3% of Australia’s 271,000 aged care workers have had their first jab.
In NSW, 96.2% of aged care staff have had their first jab thus far, leaving the remaining 3.8% of aged care staff no longer permitted to work.
Health Services Union (HSU) Secretary Gerard Hayes has been critical of the NSW government’s hardline approach and called for a deadline extension that would allow aged care workers more time to get vaccinated.
“We can’t afford to lose one person out of aged care because we don’t have enough people working in aged care, so it’s not as if the government’s got a back-up workforce if people do leave,” HSU Secretary Hayes told reporters.
With that deadline looming, and more than 13,000 NSW Health staff still yet to be vaccinated, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard threw down the gauntlet to staff who remain on the fence about the vaccination issue.
“There is no alternative but to be vaccinated … if you work in the health system you have an obligation … in what is a pandemic, what is a war,” Hazzard said.
One word:
HOORAY
and about time!
Fair enough we have a flu jab to work and right we covid jab too
There’s been plenty of time for aged care workers to be vaccinated. They’ve known it’s been coming for months. No more excuses and no extensions. Ridiculous.
Discrimination against the Aged Care sector is how I see it. The fact that they are mostly foreign workers and are most often women in a system where they are more likely to not be engaged in a union on top of the sad pay which is so much lower than those working in hospitals I see it as it is. An absolute outright discrimination of women and foreigners working in this type of work. To think that hospital staff are given 2 weeks longer to be vaccinated with so many people coming and going all day and night into hospitals proves this. I bet if everyone working in the Aged Care system were highly encouraged to join a union when first employed like the public health system they would be earning alot more and have better working conditions and staff to patient (resident’s?) ratios. Using the term “Resident” turns the whole system of looking after people who cannot look after themselves into an ageist lie as most facilities don’t allow them to eat or wake up or shower when they want. So the term of “Resident” is contradictory to what it should mean. Resident’s home? In your home you would be able to shower with assistance when you want and you should be able to sleep in and not be woken at 6.30 in the morning and dragged out of bed. I don’t even see meals kept warm for the “residents” that want to eat when they feel like it. Is this really a “residential” home. We keep being told it is their home. We’ll when at home we get up, dress if we want and eat when we want. Hence facilities are running 24/7. Hospices is what they truly are guys and all the rubbish they put out there for prospective “residents” to buy into is not what mostly happens. In the real world the staff are so busy they can’t possibly give you all that you expect from the the glossy pages of lies you read.
So many residents in aged care will be without carers due to this mandate. How disappointing antigen testing wasn’t offered to spare our elderly from further isolation and care!!!
Unfortunately fully vaccinated students cannot get in to do workplacement – reducing potential workforce that could plug any gaps due to unvaccinated workers.
We should not lose sight of what it means to belong to a community, be it a geographic area, a cultural group or a work community. All of us need to consider those we come in contact with, and may endanger, if we may a choice, that once applied, is likely to cause others harm. As a poet John Donne once said “every mans death diminishes me, for I am a member of mankind.”
In relation to the remarks of the Anonymous contributor I am sorry that your experiences have been of aged care as they have. I have worked for 17 years in the industry, at a senior level, and in the organizations I have worked for they have not been operated in this manner. And not because of executives, but the tireless efforts and dedication of carers and nurses from all corners of the globe who have given of themselves, their spirit and their love, to support the elderly. I am sorry that you have not had that sort of experience.