Tens of thousands of aged care residents remain unvaccinated
Aged care homes were the hardest hit by COVID-19 last year and quite rightly were placed at the front of the queue in our vaccination roll-out.
But almost six months on, tens of thousands of aged care residents still haven’t had a single shot
The latest statistics from the Department of Health reveals 83 per cent of aged care residents are fully vaccinated.
But that leaves a total of 31,680 in aged care yet to have both jabs.
At this stage, 24,226 aged care residents have not even had a single dose.
It’s a “mess” according to Kathie Melocco – who has become an unexpected advocate for our elderly after both her parents were infected with COVID-19 from an unvaccinated staff member at a Sydney aged care home.
“We had no idea that unvaccinated workers were working around our parents, if we had known, we would have made different decisions because we trusted, our Prime Minister (when he) said, ‘all aged care workers will be vaccinated by April’,” Ms Melocco told A Current Affair.
Her parents Alan and Lona are in their 80s with underlying health conditions but are now recovering thanks to six weeks care in Westmead hospital.
“The vaccination saved their lives without question,” she said.
A Current Affair contacted a series of aged care facilities and discovered the lowest rate of 51 per cent fully vaccinated at a nursing home in Toowoomba.
“Why? What is going wrong in that age care facility, why haven’t more than 50 per cent been vaccinated? Have families not been told? Have residents not been offered it?” Ms Melocco questioned.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, Jeannette Young, today expressed concern about that aged care facility.
“I am very, very concerned,” Ms Young said.
“I would like to see every single resident in aged care fully vaccinated but it’s their choice, remember that is their home, that is where they live.”
Council on the Ageing (COTA) Chief Executive Ian Yates wants to see vaccination rates above 90 per cent but said there’s a range of reasons preventing us from achieving 100 per cent coverage of our most vulnerable.
“There will be a proportion who are in palliative care, that’s not appropriate,” Mr Yates said.
“There will be a proportion who are ill on the day that the team is there.
“There are families that don’t consent to their parent being vaccinated.”
Mr Yates said vaccine hesitancy among residents and their families has been an issue particularly in some areas of south western Sydney where some facilities have reported vaccination rates just above 70 per cent.
“My information is that those rates have risen significantly but they’d still be lower than the national average at this point in a number of homes and that reflects family consent issues,” he said.
Vaccination of aged care staff remains the bigger challenge with only 37 per cent fully vaccinated.
There are 58 per cent partially vaccinated ahead of the government’s deadline of mid-September for every worker to have had a first dose.
Whiddon Aged Care is the first in the country to trial rapid COVID-19 testing of all staff and contractors before entry.
CEO Chris Mamarelis said the rapid antigen tests provide a result in “around 10-12 minutes”.
“We’re entrusted to look after people who are frail they need our care and are very vulnerable so we need to be looking for every mechanism, every strategy we can to protect our residents and protect the people who are providing the care for them,” Mr Mamarelis said.
He said Whiddon’s facilities have achieved over 90 per cent vaccination of residents and around 55 per cent of staff with that latter rate quickly climbing as the September deadline approaches.
“Employees are members of our community and I think the things we’ve experienced in our community with vaccine hesitancy with confused messaging of course that rubs off onto our employees, they’re members of our community,” he said.
Ms Melocco questions how every aged care worker will get vaccinated in around five weeks time with many still reporting they’ve been unable to get an appointment.
“The promise was that all aged care workers will be given the opportunity to be vaccinated by April,” she said.
“It’s now, August and that hasn’t happened.”
