An aged care facility in Eastern Victoria wants support from the Defence Force to meet staff shortages and improve conditions after it failed a government audit.
Auditors found Royal Freemasons Sale was not meeting the governments' minimum Aged Care Quality Standards.
In February, the federal government announced up to 1,700 Defence staff would be sent to help aged care workers with severe staff shortages.
The aged care facility has also been sanctioned meaning it can not take new residents until July, so it will miss out on subsequent government payments.
Royal Freemason's chief executive Kerri Rivett said it would be a "significant financial hit" and the organisation's main issue is finding enough qualified staff at the Gippsland nursing home.
"We have put a call in to the Defence Force for some assistance, we're just waiting for a response around that," Ms Rivett said.
The facility will also be forced to appoint an "eligible adviser" to assist the organisation for six months as part of the sanctions.
Ms Rivett said they were allocating additional resources and specialist staff to assist meeting the requirements.
"There's a nurse advisor on site, there's other clinicians on site, there's a nurse educator on site. We're assisting the staff and work through the noncompliance that had been identified," Ms Rivett said.
She blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for staff shortages and turnover.
"We haven't been able to actually meet the staffing levels required on that site and we've been trying to recruit to that site for some time," Ms Rivett said.
This audit result comes after the facility failed to meet almost half of its 42 requirements in last year's audit.
Residents miss showers under shortages
Greg Short's wife Jenny is a Royal Freemasons Sale resident and welcomed Defence being called in.
He said he had been lobbying Freemason's for better management in the four year's his wife Jenny had lived there.
He said because of the recent staff shortage she had not been showered or able to move out of her room for five days.
"Staff can't get her out of bed and put her in the [mobility chair]. It can't be done with one staff member. It happened last Friday and this Monday," he said.
"One staff member is running the dementia ward, so at lunch time they serve food to the ones at the table but then she's got another four bedridden [residents] that she's to to feed by herself."
He believed nothing had changed since the sanctions were imposed on April 14 and shifts were still short staffed.
He said while the personal care workers that were there did the best they could, they were constantly understaffed and burn out.
"I've seen [the staff members] cry because they're just stressed out," Mr Short said.
"They've lost good workers, and the ones who put up with it are bloody excellent."
On a good week, Mrs Short's carers will shower, dress, and style her hair on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Mr Short usually uses this as a measure of staffing levels, and said on Wednesday Mrs Short had not received staff care since Friday.
Mr Short insisted he was not just advocating for his wife, he also tried to speak up for the other residents and staff.
"I complain for the whole lot of them," Mr Short said.
"There's no activities because there's not enough staff.
"They've blamed too much on COVID. This was going on before that too."
Can't get enough staff to look after residents
Royal Freemason's Sale staff members told the ABC say they were blamed for failing the audit by the organisation's management.
But Ms Rivett denied this.
"The staff have actually done an absolutely fantastic job on the site," she said.
"But we just can't get enough staff to be able to meet the needs of the residents there are on site at the moment."
