The peak bodies for aged care have welcomed an increase in the annual cap on skilled migration and called for more measures to directly fill an estimated 60,000 vacancies in Australia’s aged care sector.
A sector that is among the hardest-hit by the pandemic has called on the government to help fill a widening workforce shortage after a rise in the country’s migration cap.
The aged care peak bodies want more skilled migrants to be able to work in the sector, who are desperately needed to fill an estimated 60,000 vacancies in the sector alone.
A recent study by Catholic Health Australia found that 45,000 of the 60,000 vacancies in aged care were filled by qualified workers.
The government announced at the jobs and skills summit in Canberra that it would increase the annual cap on skilled migration to 195,000 places from its current level of 190,000.
The peak bodies for Catholic Health Australia, Uniting NSW and ACT and UnitingCare Australia have said an urgent increase is needed for skilled workers in aged care, whose numbers were affected by the pandemic.
Pat Garcia, chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, said the skilled migrants would help to alleviate the workforce crisis.
“Adding personal care workers to the skilled migration list could really help plug the gap in the aged care workforce,” he said.
“When there are almost 60,000 vacancies in aged care right now this is something that government can do and do it quickly.”
Saviour Buhagiar, director of the NSW and ACT division of senior services, said there was a 10 percent vacancy rate across operations. Of those vacancies, 1000 were in aged care alone.
“After the work our people have done during the pandemic to keep seniors safe, we cannot keep asking them to work double shifts and struggle to fill rosters,” he said.
“We need the boost to our workforce that including personal care workers in the migration list will deliver.”
The government has agreed to lower the isolation period for COVID-19 positive cases from seven to five days in order to allow employees to return to work sooner.
Health experts say the country is not ready to treat COVID-19 like other infectious diseases such as the flu.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the lowering of the isolation time, citing that it was necessary to do so.
The Australian Medical Association requested that the government release the health advice behind its decision to reject the request.
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