The Morrison Government is helping aged care workers get vaccinated as part of an $11 million grant program.
\nApplications are now open for aged care providers to apply for the funding following recommendations mandatory vaccinations be introduced.
\nThe program was established in recognition of the individual circumstances of aged care workers now subject to the new requirement.
\nNational Cabinet endorsed the decision of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all residential aged care workers by mid-September 2021, when they are required to have at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
\nThe Residential Aged Care COVID-19 Employee Vaccination Support Grant will allow casual residential aged care workers to be paid under the following two categories via their employer:<\/p>\n
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said the grants program is an important measure to help lift COVID-19 vaccination rates. The Morrison Government is helping aged care workers get vaccinated as part of an $11 million grant program. Applications are now open for aged care providers to apply for the funding following recommendations mandatory vaccinations be introduced. The program was established in recognition of the individual circumstances of aged care workers now subject to the … Continue reading “Support for mandatory vaccination of residential aged care workers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cIt will help residential aged care workers who may need to travel to get vaccinated at the nearest hub, clinic or GP,\u201d Minister Hunt said.
\n\u201cThe grants program will also help those workers who do not have leave entitlements to recover from any minor side effects and who may be concerned about losing wages after being vaccinated.\u201d
\nMinister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck, said the grants program will also provide financial support for flexible vaccination facilitation costs.
\nUp to $500 per residential aged care facility will also be available under the grants program to contribute to costs that may be incurred in facilitating access to vaccination for workers.
\n\u201cThis will cover transport services, arranging groups of workers to be vaccinated and\/or any other reasonable expenses that support workers to get vaccinated,\u201d Minister Colbeck said.
\n\u201cThe Commonwealth will continue to work closely with the aged care sector, including the unions, to ensure support and access to COVID-19 vaccination for all workers in residential aged care.\u201d
\nMinister Colbeck said ensuring all aged care workers are vaccinated will further protect the residents in their care.
\n\u201cThis is why COVID-19 vaccinations will be mandated for residential aged care workers as a condition of working in an aged care facility through shared state, territory and Commonwealth authorities and compliance measures,\u201d he said.
\nThe Morrison Government contracted vaccine workforce providers to deliver vaccination in-reach clinics to 2566 Commonwealth-subsidised residential aged care facilities for residents and, where additional vaccines were available, workers.
\nProviders are also now able to vaccinate their own workers on-site.\u00a0 The request for tender is open until 30 July and so far more than 25,000 staff will be vaccinated through this program. All on-site vaccination programs will include Pfizer
\nAged care providers can also consult with their Primary Health Network and GPs to organise on-site vaccination clinics for workers.
\nWorkers accessing a COVID-19 vaccination through off-site clinics will also be offered Pfizer once it is available \u2013 this includes through general practices, Commonwealth vaccination clinics and state clinics.
\nFrom July 2021, around 1300 GPs will be administering Pfizer vaccinations, providing additional sites for vaccination.
\nApplications for the Residential Aged Care COVID-19 Employee Vaccination Support Grant can be found on the\u00a0Australian Government’s GrantConnect\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"