COVID staffing pressures have been blamed for the closures of a nursing home south of Newcastle and another in the Snowy-Monaro region.
Southern Cross Care NSW and ACT has announced it will close its Tenison facility at Swansea in Lake Macquarie and its Currawarna facility in Bombala.
Chief executive Helen Emmerson said the decision was made because of "severe workforce shortages" that meant the homes could not provide "high quality" and "consistent" care.
"We have had two years of COVID and staff are utterly exhausted," she said.
"Limiting visiting hours has meant staff have left after copping abuse from families who can't see their relatives.
Each nursing home has 32 beds, but only 20 residents are in each facility, meaning 40 people will need to be relocated.
Ms Emmerson said the decision to close the homes was heartbreaking.
"Look, I'd say I understand completely how distressing this is and this was an extremely difficult decision for us to make," she said.
"The decision came from a place of absolute care … knowing that we would not be able to continue to sustainably look after our residents."
Ms Emmerson said the facilities would not close until every resident had secured new accommodation.
Recruitment failures
Emmerson said efforts to attract staff at the Bombala facility had failed.
"For the Bombala home to operate sustainably, Southern Cross Care NSW and ACT requires seven full-time staff members, including two registered nurses," she said.
"Despite extensive efforts, Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT hadn't been able to recruit permanent staff to the remote town.
"We've been faced with these challenges for for probably around 18 months with these particular homes and we've seen it get progressively worse, especially around the staffing.
Families distraught
Russell Stinson's 89-year-old mother has been in the Swansea home for more than seven years.
He said she became distraught when she was told about the closure this morning.
"I am a little bit devastated, because it has been mum's home for that amount of time," he said.
"In reality [the residents are like] friends and family, because these are the ones you communicate with and have dinner each night and you sit down and play bingo and cards."
Mr Stinson said he was worried a nearby home at Caves Beach would not have enough vacancies to take the Swansea residents.
'Multiply it out'
Geriatrician and Monash University's Health Law and Ageing Research Unit head Joseph Ibrahim said the decision was "tragic for all concerned".
"I think that what the community does not realise is that the homes are a community — they give residents and staff a sense of belonging," he said.
"Most people would think it is a simple task of just moving house, but it is far from that.
But Dr Ibrahim said the sector was in crisis well before the pandemic.
"We knew there were problems with staffing in aged care that have been highlighted, really, for the past decade, and they were prominent in the royal commission's findings," he said.
He said the displacement of 40 residents would have flow-on effects in Bombala and Swansea.
"You have to multiply it out," he said.
"It is 40 residents with 40 families, so there you have got at least 120 people affected and you have got another 40-plus staff involved and 40 families there.
'Too little too late'
The ABC requested an interview with Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck, but a spokesman said he was in Senate estimates all day on Wednesday and instead issued a statement.
"The Morrison government recognises the additional pressures on staffing across the health and aged care sector," the statement said.
The spokesman said thousands of aged care workers would benefit from an extra payment of $800.
But Ms Emmerson said that was a paltry offering and that the announcement of ADF support in the sector had come too late.
"Throwing the $800 at the staff and the offer of the Defence Force — it's not only too little too late, but it shows a real lack of understanding on the part of senior people within government, because this these are long-standing, entrenched issues," she said.
"We can't continue to do it unless we have adequate funding, adequate support, adequate understanding from the government on what it actually is like on the ground to run an aged care facility."
