Mrs Dalton said the Federal Government’s poor implementation of the 24/7 Registered Nurses requirement for aged care facilities is to blame for the closure of this residence.
She has called on the NSW Government to take the reins on the issue or more aged care facilities, like the one in Moama, will shut their doors.
“If the Minns government doesn’t prioritise permanent staffing in regional and remote NSW, this could be just the tip of the iceberg in the decline of aged care in my electorate,” Mrs Dalton said.
“People should be allowed to age gracefully, close to their families, rather than be shipped out of town due to lack of resources”.
Moama’s Southern Cross Care aged care facility has faced persistent staff shortages, which has already forced the closure of a wing due to round-the-clock registered nurse (RN) obligations.
Given the new minimum care requirements and the difficulty in recruiting professionals to the regions, Mrs Dalton there simply weren’t enough RNs to meet the demands.
“This unfortunately set off a chain reaction. With fewer residents, there was reduced revenue and the demand to employ full-time RNs,” she said.
“I understand that to bridge the gap, the facility had to rely on agency RNs, whose cost is significantly higher, sometimes up to two to three times more than a full-time local RN and disgracefully that was just not cost effective.”
“I know the issues are resulting from previous governments, but this NSW government needs fix the recruiting and the incentives processes to smaller country communities.
“No nurses equals poorer health outcomes in the bush and this is unacceptable.”
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