Do better: Aged care watchdog issues COVID-19 jab warning to nursing homes

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has put nursing home owners on notice after the most recent data released by the federal government.

Only one in 10 nursing homes in the Hunter New England Central Coast region have between 90 and 100 per cent of their residents up to date with their vaccinations.

At one in five nursing homes across that region (25 per cent), only half or less of aged care facility residents (50 per cent or less) have received a booster shot in the past 12 months.

Being up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations means having had a booster shot in the past six months.

The warning comes as the Hunter New England Local Health District is dealing with 20 aged-care outbreaks of COVID-19 as at the end of May, rising from 14 last in April this year.

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said all residential aged care providers had been put on notice to ensure timely access to COVID-19 vaccinations for residents, and to have robust infection prevention and control measures in place to reduce the risk of an outbreak over the winter period.

Residential aged care homes with low COVID-19 vaccination rates raise questions for the commission about whether those in charge of those homes are focusing enough on protecting older people in their care from serious disease, the commissioner said.

"We are concerned about the proportion of aged care residents who are not up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations," Ms Anderson said.

"Timely access to vaccination should be part of routine clinical care for every older person."

The commission is planning to conduct unannounced site visits to nursing homes with low COVID-19 vaccination rates to find out why, and what is being done to address it.

"Where we find that a provider lacks interest and/or capability to take the necessary action, and their ongoing inattention to this vital preventative measure is placing residents in harm's way, there will be regulatory consequences," Ms Anderson said.

Old age is the biggest risk to becoming seriously ill with COVID-19, and people living in residential aged care are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infections, she said.

COVID hospitalisations have almost doubled in a month in Hunter New England, as another wave of the virus takes hold.

The wave is expected to peak in the middle of winter, worrying authorities as influenza and RSV cases are also rising.

Peter Murray, a Hunter New England public health physician, said "we're really concerned about these viruses all hitting at once during winter".

"We need people to get prepared. The critical thing is staying up to date with recommended COVID and influenza vaccinations," Dr Murray said.

"They can be given in the same visit."

The district has 71 cases of people in hospital with COVID, rising from 39 a month ago. This compared with 80 cases near the peak of the last wave in January.