Covid-19 is making already chronic staff shortages in aged residential care even worse, operators say.
The numbers of both staff and residents at southern rest-homes and care facilities who have caught the pandemic disease hit record levels this week: as of Thursday across Otago and Southland there were 146 active cases among residents and more than 100 in staff.
Heritage Life Care Ltd chief executive Norah Barlow said staffing was "an absolute crisis" in aged care.
"Registered nurses were the start of it, but we now can’t get caregivers or cooks due to scarcity and price . . . and now Covid has had a major impact on our facilities throughout the country."
Aged residential care nurses have historically been paid less as they are not government-funded to the same level as district health board nurses.
The recent DHB pay settlement was a "hammer blow" to aged residential care and would only make things worse, Ms Barlow said.
"It has been successive governments, not just this Government, which have created this position.
"If we did not have first-class aged care these people would end up in hospital, and hospitals cannot cope now."
High vaccination rates had been critical in keeping aged residential care operating thus far and reducing death rates, Ms Barlow said.
"Without vaccination, who knows where we would be."
Presbyterian Support Otago chief executive Jo Rowe said her organisation was about 100 staff down due to Covid-19 and everyday absences, but that was from a low base due to problems hiring staff.
PSO had plans in place for absentee rates as high as 30% but so far had only had to cope with levels about half that.
"Staff have had to go above and beyond, as they have had to do for the past two years."
The Southern District Health Board this week reminded all aged residential care facilities that mask wearing was compulsory for all staff, regardless of circumstances: it is understood some facilities had wanted to bring back staff who had a mask exemption.
"Masks are very hard but they are very necessary," Ms Barlow said.
"We put them in to our facilities very early on and thankfully that helped contain Covid, but they are not anything anybody likes particularly."
The South recorded a further 1116 community cases of Covid-19 yesterday, from a national tally of 9390. Of those, 369 were in Dunedin, 239 in Invercargill, 133 in Queenstown-Lakes and 110 in Southland.
There were 35 people in hospital who had Covid-19, 24 in Dunedin, nine in Southland, and one apiece in Dunstan and Waitaki.
Nationally, there were 9390 new cases of Covid-19 reported yesterday and 13 further deaths, including one person aged under 20.
There were 522 people in hospital with the coronavirus, including 15 in ICU.
