The aged care sector needs an injection of almost $500 million to close the wages gap and attract an extra 20,000 nursing staff, according to the Australian Nursing Federation.

Ahead of Monday’s release of the final Productivity Commission report into aged care, the ANF has called for urgent funding for more nursing staff to address critical workforce issues.

After delivering on health reform this week, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has foreshadowed major changes to the under-resourced aged care sector.

Figures show throughout the next 40 years, the over-65 population will go from representing one in six people to one in four, and those over 85 from one in 200 to one in 20.ANF federal secretary Lee Thomas said almost $500 million was needed to close the wages gap for nurses and assistants in nursing working in aged care.

Ms Thomas said aged care nurses are paid between $168 and $390 on average less a week than nurses working in public hospitals.And she said the aged care workforce needs to be tripled to cope with the demands of the nation’s ageing population. “Fixing aged care can’t wait – it has to happen now,” Ms Thomas said.

“The shortage of aged care nursing staff is already having a real impact, with independent analysis showing…nursing home residents are on average receiving just 22 minutes of care from a nurse each day.

“But one of the main reasons we can’t recruit and then retain aged care nurses and AINs is because of the significant wages gap experienced by aged care nursing staff across the country.”
Ms Thomas said while the PC draft report acknowledged the wage disparity in the nursing workforce, she said the final report must lay the foundations for the Federal Government to fix aged care in its 2012 budget.