Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised during the election campaign to ‘put nurses back in nursing homes’.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised during the election campaign to ‘put nurses back in nursing homes’.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“How meaningless is it going to be if you just unendingly don’t have to adhere to it?” she said.

Health department assistant secretary Melanie Metz told a recent Senate committee inquiry into the bill there were “no particular penaltiesattached to the requirements” to have a registered nurse on site 24/7 and experts say the requirement will not fix the aged care sector.

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Monash University Professor Joseph Ibrahim said while “it’s a catchy soundbite to have a nurse in every nursing home”,the 24/7 nurse bill would not solve “the fundamental problem of there’s just not enough workers who know what they’re doing”.

“The consequences,politically,for the government are much more dire if they’ve got highly punitive measures,” the geriatric medicine specialist said.

The government is hoping to attract 4900 overseas-trained nurses to work across Australia’s health system as part of its plan tolift the cap on permanent migration by 35,000 places to 195,000 and is backing a push for higher wages in the Fair Work Commission.

Aged care providers struggle to recruit registered nurses to the sector,in part because they can earn higher wages in hospitals.

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The policy to have a registered nurse on site at all times brings forward a key recommendation from the aged care royal commission by a year.

“If you don’t have a nurse in a nursing home,when an elderly person gets sick,they can often end up getting an acute health condition because there is not someone on-site to help them,” the prime minister said on August 1.

“That’s what the royal commission said and what we are responding to.”

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson told the Senate committee hearing last month that only those providers who seemed “relatively uninterested in addressing” the 24/7 nurse requirement would fall within the regulator’s sights.

The strongest possible enforcement action available to the commission is to revoke an aged care provider’s accreditation,but this is extremely rare. Re-accreditation was withheld from just one provider in 2020-21,when the commission received more than 9000 complaints.

The opposition supports the Aged Care Amendment (Implementing Care Reform) Bill 2022 but sought an amendment to ensure the process of granting exemptions to providers unable to find staff was clear before the legislation could be passed.

The bill saysproviders can get an exemption to the 24/7 nurse requirement but does not say under what circumstances and the government is still consulting the sector on the detail.

The Community Affairs Legislation committee recommended the bill be amended to require reasons for exemption decisions to be made public.

Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said the government would create a new general duty of care for aged care homes which would set a guaranteed standard of care,with criminal and civil penalties for serious breaches,and boost the commission’s powers.

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Wells said the commission’s new powers,which are yet to be legislated,would include the ability “to enter and remain in an aged care facility at any time,to ensure the safety of residents,as well as full access to documents and records”.

Commissioner Anderson said when asked if the ACQSC had sufficient resources to police the 24/7 nurse rule that the commission was hoping to get more funding in the October budget. Family members could ring a 1800 number to dob in providers that did not have a nurse on site,she said.

The commissioner,whose agency was criticised for failing to enforce infection control early in the COVID-19 pandemic,faces an uncertain future as the government prepares to launch a capability review and transform the regulator into a new Aged Care Quality and Safety Authority.

The review will examine whether the commission has the appropriate resources,workforce,regulatory and investigatory skills,clinical knowledge,assessment enforcement skills to keep older Australians safe. It is due to report by July.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletterhere.

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