Surge staffing arrangements

To supply ‘surge’ staffing to residential aged care during COVID outbreaks, in early April 2020 the Australian government initially employed healthcare delivery provider Aspen Medical and care staff platform Mable to provide rapid response teams to residential and community care. As of 2 October 2020, significant surge workforce assistance had been provided by both state and National Aged Care Emergency Response (NACER) teams, with many workers deployed from interstate.

The Government’s National Aged Care Emergency Response (NACER) was introduced, during Victoria’s second wave, to mobilise experienced aged care workers from areas across Australia without community transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) to help care for residents in care facilities that face staff shortages because of COVID-19. Staff recruited include registered nurses, enrolled nurses, personal care workers and cleaners. These workers can be deployed to care facilities for a four week period, followed by two weeks of quarantine and are supplied with uniforms and PPE, regular COVID-19 tests during their placement and have access to pastoral and mental health support.

Scale of use of surge staffing

By 14th January 2022 these labour hire firms had supplied staff for around 60,000 shifts in aged care services affected. This included 39,104 shifts through the Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association (RCSA). Aspen Medical had provided staff to fill 1,245 staff as clinical first responder deployments and Mable had filled 2,711 shifts.The State and NACER Teams have played a relatively small role (204 personnel were deployed).

How has this worked?

In evidence before the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality & Safety, concerns were raised about the minimal experience many of the surge staff had in residential aged care.

An Independent Review COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian Residential Aged Care Facilities published in April 2021 found that, during the second wave in Victoria and staffing levels became depleted there was not enough supply of qualified and or experienced staff, the review found that some of the surge workforce did not have appropriate skills and experience, had not had sufficient training in Infection Prevention and Control, or did not speak English well enough, managers struggled to work with surge staff and many care homes preferred to avoid using workers they did not know.

This experience shows that organising and mobilising a surge workforce is a major logistical challenge that requires an extraordinary collaborative effort to deliver staff where they were needed. Some large providers with capacity to engage their own interstate
staff, also organised similar programs and incentives for staff to work in other states.

The Independent Review by Lilly and Gilbert also highlights that, in order to repond to the situation some care homes redesigned roles, so that staff without care skills and experience were deployed to roles such as helping residents communicate with their familes and updating families, and in some cases staff who were isolating at home would support remotely the surge workers, sharing their knowledge about the residents and their needs.

References:

Charlesworth, S and Low, L-F (2020) The Long-Term Care COVID-19 situation in Australia. Report in LTCcovid.org, International
Long-Term Care Policy Network, CPEC-LSE, 12 October 2020. https://ltccovid.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Australia-LTC-COVID19-situation-12-October-2020-1-1.pdf

Lilly A. and Gilbert L. (2021) Independent Review: COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian Residential Aged Care Facilities – No time for Complacency. https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-independent-review-of-covid-19-outbreaks-in-australian-residential-aged-care-facilities