Aged services join regional lobby group

Two local aged care services are part of a new regional lobby group.

Woy Woy Community Aged Care general manager Mrs Jennifer Eddy, and Peninsula Village chief executive Ms Terri Parker are members of the newly-created Combined Aged Care Action Group.

The group consists of Central Coast aged care representatives and is seeking increased Federal Government funding for aged care.

The Central Coast regional committee of the Aged and Community Services Association (ACS) recently held a forum, which led to the formation of the action group.

ACS executive officer Mr Paul Sadler said: "Residential care providers have been systematically underfunded for the past eight years by the Federal Government.

"As a result, many providers are struggling to meet increasing costs."

"A NSW Industrial Relations Commission hearing has started for a 27.5 per cent pay claim seeking to bridge the wages gap between aged care nurses and their counterparts in public hospitals.

"However, aged care providers cannot bridge this gap when the average indexation increase (under the Federal Government's indexation system) is less than two per cent per annum.

"The ACS campaign is seeking a commitment by the Federal Government to fully fund any wage increase granted by the Industrial Relations Commission to aged care staff and replacement of the current inadequate indexation arrangement for residential care and community care programs."

Mrs Eddy said that for several years now the Federal Government had been "bringing the states into line with each other" in terms of funding aged care.

She said that the Government had failed to take into account their different cost structures, particularly wage costs.

"Some states, such as NSW, have higher operating costs.

"We're having to bite into other, very limited (income) sources," she said.

Mrs Eddy said that because of a wage differential between public hospital nurses and aged care nurses, nurses were drifting away from aged care.

"There's the potential for a serious nurse shortage in the aged care sector.

"This is a major issue that governments need to address in order to maintain the skilled staff necessary to meet community expectations."

The Central Coast Regional Committee of the ACS held a forum for Central Coast aged care providers, Central Coast Health, and other interested parties on July 3.

The forum gave birth to the Combined Aged Care Action Group.

Mrs Eddy said the committee aimed to identify and address Central Coast-specific issues, be the media voice of Central Coast aged care providers and services, and to lobby all levels of government.

She said the committee's first meeting was held on July 27 where aged care funding, staffing, and marketing were identified as priority issues.

"We need to address community (perceptions) of aged care.

"We have outstanding nursing home, hostel, and community care services on the Central Coast."

Con Orfanos, press release, August 19