A NSW union leader has described the Illawarra's aged care system as "probably as bad off as you can get", citing a high rate of people who should be in aged care beds who were stuck in hospital.
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And, according to Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes, this will only get worse unless drastic measures are taken to improve working conditions in the sector, with a new survey showing three quarters of workers were planning to leave their jobs in favour of other industries in the next six months.
Launching a new survey of around 2000 aged care workers outside the Fair Work Commission on Tuesday, Mr Hayes said the aged care system was "on the brink of collapse".
The commission awarded an interim 15 per cent pay rise to direct care employees two weeks ago - which was celebrated - but the union says the increase isn't high enough and continues to call for a 25 per cent increase across the sector's workforce.
Mr Hayes said this would would bring aged care workers in line with people working in the disabilities sector, and may mean workers would reconsider plans to leave the industry.
"Right now, there's a global workforce crisis... you can see how how desperate the competition is for workforce, and people will make a decision that they can restart in a different industry and get paid more," he said.
"If that happens, the aged care system will fail, and people going into aged care will suffer."
He said finding workers has been a major problem in the Illawarra.
"The Illawarra has been struggling to make ends meet with enough resources in terms of workforce," he said.
"Over the past two years, people have been leaving.
"There's licences for beds, but there's the inability to open them [due to staff] and the Illawarra is probably as bad off as you can get, quite frankly.
"And you've also got to factor in an ageing population, when over the next three to eight years, baby boomers will start accessing aged care. It will be catastrophic if we can't get the right workforce and retention methods in place."
"People may not want to go into aged care in the future - it has been so underfunded and under cared for."
The Illawarra's aged care bed shortage attracted the attention of NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard earlier this year, who told NSW Budget Estimates in September that one quarter of the beds available for emergency department admissions were blocked by people needing space in an aged care home.
In addition, roughly 250 aged care beds have been lost in the region since 2020, and - despite a combined effort form the federal and state governments and industry - there remains a large number of many physical beds and rooms which exist but cannot be staffed.
As part of the union's survey, workers were also asked to share their recollections of "a challenging day at work" in the past year.
In their responses, workers recounted being punched, kicked, spat on, hair pulled and verbally abused, having no breaks, or being left by themselves to care for dozens of residents.
"These times have been difficult but not nearly as difficult as working extremely short staffed constantly, as no new workers want to join the industry because of the pay rate and conditions we have to work in," one worker, identified as Kerry, said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a union conference in Melbourne on Monday the government backed the 15 per cent rise "for our undervalued and underpaid aged care workforce".
-With AAP
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
