Mercy Health has announced that it will have to reduce staff numbers at its facilities at Albury and Young in rural NSW.

The organisation’s executive director for aged care, Bill Appleby said the difficult decision was made to ensure the financial sustainability of both facilities.

“It’s an issue of ongoing business management,” he said. “We needed to do this to continue to be viable in the long term.”

“With these two sites we looked at all the other cost drivers before we looked at the rosters.

“We made a number of changes in those areas and now regrettably we are having to make changes in the areas of staffing.”

Mercy Health has approval for a further 60 beds at its Albury facility and it requires a strong foundation for that expansion.

Mr Appleby said changes to the rosters would lead to an increase in the amount of care received by residents.

“Our residents already enjoy a high level of care across these services and we believe that the changes we are making will lead to more direct care hours and we think that the outcome will actually lead to an improved quality of care for the residents.”

There are about 85 people working at the facility in Young, and around 75 staff at the Albury facility. The number of staff that will be affected by the rostering changes remains unknown.