“This is a company that has over $2.1 billion in assets and over $2 billion in revenue, and they are saying they can’t afford to have their enrolled nurse workforce. [It’s] just fundamentally wrong.”

BlueCare blamed the cuts on federal funding and regulatory changes, including the introduction of mandatory care minutes last year.

Under this provision, aged care facilities must provide residents with 215 minutes of direct care time each day from registered nurses, enrolled nurses and personal care workers.

A BlueCare spokesperson said providers “are not funded appropriately to retain enrolled nurses” and the organisation “can no longer sustain this funding gap”.

“Under the current model, the care enrolled nurses provide can only contribute 10 per cent toward mandatory care minute targets,” the spokesperson said.

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“[We] have had to make the difficult decision to review our enrolled nurse workforce.”

But the most recent safe staffing report from Aged Care Watch, a reporting tool for aged care workers, residents and families, found 82 per cent of facilities surveyed were operating below the government’s acceptable levels of staffing, despite the introduction of care minutes.

From more than 1000 safe staffing reports, 60 per cent of respondents said they were being asked to do work outside their role and 610 indicated residents were not receiving their minimum level of care time.

Beaman called BlueCare’s justification “a cop out”.

“Simply not being able to afford it, that’s just not good enough,” she said.

“We know their profits are high, and we know that their equity and assets are high … they have the money to be able to retain their enrolled nurse workforce.”

QNMU said concerns had been raised that enrolled nurses would be replaced by less-experienced and qualified personal care workers who are not equipped to manage complex patient needs.

“The new Aged Care Act is actually saying that we need better care in aged care. This is not going to achieve that,” Beaman said.

QNMU have referred BlueCare to the federal Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

BlueCare said it is doing “everything possible to support affected staff”, including identifying redeployment opportunities.

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