Cuts in nursing care in NSW nursing home

A cut of nine hours per night nursing care has caused concerns for staff and resident families of Mudgee Nursing Home, according to local media reports.

Residents’ families contacted the Mudgee Guardian recently, saying that nurses were being run off of their feet and stretched to provide a proper level of care.

Families complained of residents being queued up to be helped to the toilets in the daytime, some being left wet for periods of time, problems with food and with cleaning maintenance.

However, a spokesperson for Moran Health Group, owners of the Mudgee Nursing Home, said the nursing home is highly staffed and would continue to provide industry best practices to their residents.
The spokesperson would not confirm the nursing hours had been cut but said there is a consultative process in place with residents, staff and relatives. “Patient care will always remain our number one priority,” he said.

General secretary of the NSW Nurses Association, Brett Holmes, said the union had been informed of the decision to cut six hours from the evening shift and cut the night shift length by one hour per worker, or three hours nursing per night, equaling a total of nine hours lost per day, leaving four staff working the evening shift, caring for 50 residents.

Mr Holmes said sometimes a reduction of nursing hours came after funding cutbacks when a resident dies or categories change and nursing homes had to absorb that. But it affected all levels of care for both staff and residents.