SYDNEY, June 28 (Xinhua) -- A new report from an Australian research institute, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), has shown that staff shortages are continuing to escalate the nation's aged care crisis.
The report, released on Tuesday, calculated that each year there would be a shortfall of 30,000 to 35,000 direct care workers, double what was forecast just one year earlier.
CEDA Senior Economist Cassandra Winzar said the buckling of Australia's aged care system was driven both by circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic and inadequate government action.
"Miniscule levels of migration and increased levels of attrition in the sector, estimated to be around 65,000 workers a year, have exacerbated existing shortages," said Winzar.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, aged care homes became the frontline of the pandemic, which led to burnout among workers in the sector and has since seen droves of workers switch to other industries.
Winzar and her team made a call to the new government to deliver on promises to increase the quality and accessibility of aged care, including a pledge to have a nurse at every aged care home 24 hours a day.
"Filling this shortfall will not be achieved without determined and consistent effort which must start now," she said.
The report called for an increase in wages for aged care workers, the adding of personal-care workers to Australia's skilled-migrant categories, and providing industry and government low-cost options to retrain workers and support workers in aged care.
"By pulling all the available levers we can start to make progress on building the caring workforce that Australia needs to provide the high level of care we all expect for ourselves and our families," said the authors of the report.
Australia's aging population presents a major policy challenge for the nation. In 2022 there were an estimated 1.3 million Australians receiving some form of care service and an estimated 360,000 people employed in the sector.
According to a 2021 paper from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), by 2060 9.3 percent of all Australians would require aged care, up from 5 percent in 2020. ■