TLC to vaccinate aged care residents across Australia

OBGFC Major Sponsor TLC has been awarded the Federal Government contract to rollout vaccines to the remaining 5500 unvaccinated Australian aged care residents.

The below excerpts are from an article published on June 12 by Clay Lucas in The Age.

Aged care group awarded contract to vaccinate remaining 5500 residents

About 6000 of Victoria’s 44,000 private aged care residents have not yet been vaccinated, figures released to the Senate last week show. The government on Saturday morning indicated this had fallen to 5500.

TLC runs aged care homes in Melbourne and Geelong. Its 11 homes had zero coronavirus cases last year during Victoria’s second wave, when 655 people died in private aged care.

TLC in April announced its 1500 residents and 2000 staff had been fully vaccinated.

Mr Pascuzzi said his company had anticipated delays in the government vaccination rollout across aged care, so went to Canberra and got permission to vaccinate its own residents and staff.

He said TLC’s working relationship with the Health Department, developed during the months it vaccinated its residents and workers, had helped it secure the contract to help immunise people in other homes this week.

Mr Pascuzzi said too often aged care operators happily accepted federal funding to house and care for residents, but tried to avoid blame when things went wrong.

“The executives and boards of the aged care industry in Australia have sat back and expected the government to spoon-feed them. Their lack of traction on the COVID-19 vaccination rollout is a perfect example of why that approach is not acceptable or sustainable,” he said.

He said vaccinating residents and staff was “solely the responsibility of the aged care providers who have a duty of care”.

Mr Pascuzzi said the vaccine rollout had been overseen by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and blame for what had gone wrong in aged care needed to be sheeted home to this group, not the government.