AGED-care advocates fear Wyndham’s only government-owned nursing home could be sold off under plans to privatise hundreds of aged-care beds, fanning concerns of nursing job cuts and fee hikes for residents.
They say elderly western suburbs residents may be hardest hit under the state government’s privatisation plans.
Opposition MPs toured several government-owned nursing homes, including Werribee’s South Stone Lodge, last Wednesday, launching a petition urging Premier Denis Napthine to stop shrinking the public aged-care sector.
The government has closed almost 200 aged care beds in two years.
Budget documents show the government expects to save $75 million in the next four years when private providers take over management of the state’s aged-care beds in Melbourne. The savings would be achieved through the government no longer having to meet nurse-to-patient ratios that apply in state-run facilities.
Council on the Ageing state chief executive Sue Hendy said while it was “debatable” whether the government should run aged-care in the city, “it definitely needs to be in it” in the western suburbs where demand was not being met by private providers.
Nursing union spokeswoman Robyn Asbury said the planned sell-off would negatively affect patient care. She feared more nurses would be made redundant as private facilities shed staff and increased the proportion of ‘‘personal care workers’’.
Tarneit MP Labor MP Tim Pallas accused the government of “selling off the care of our seniors to the highest bidder” despite an ageing population. “I am very concerned that South Stone Lodge will be next,’’ he said.
Government spokeswoman Rachel White said no decisions had yet been made on which sites would be sold, but there would be no loss of aged-care places through any transfers.
