“What we have is an underfunded system,” Mr Sadler said.

“We’ve seen recent closures. It’s a coming together of those long-term, really unresolved financial issues for the sector with the short-term impact of staffing shortages, and it’s triggering some providers to say, ‘well, this home is really not viable to continue to operate’.”

Grant Corderoy, a senior partner specialising in aged care at accounting firm StewartBrown, said Omicron had hit the aged care sector harder than any other industry. He expected the number of homes operating at a loss to hit 60 per cent by June, up from 56 per cent in the September quarter.

“Regional homes are really struggling,” Mr Corderoy said.

Aged care home closures are a drastic step that require operators to find somewhere for residents to live as they are bound by contracts that lock in security of tenure.

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While existing issues in the sector were driving closures before the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Corderoy said the recent Omicron wave had exacerbated the crisis.

Unions are pushing for a 25 per cent pay rise for aged care workers in the Fair Work Commission.

Opposition aged care spokesperson Clare O’Neil said aged care was in a state of crisis and the government was “utterly out of touch with what is really going on out there”.

“The denials, the neglect and incompetency has to end,” Ms O’Neil said.

During parliamentary question time on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said the government was pursuing “systemic reform” and that its recently announced two $400 bonus payments being provided to workers brought retention payments to $600 million.

“Although it has been difficult, we see one of the lowest rates of loss of life in the world in aged care and we thank our staff and honour them for that,” the Prime Minister said.

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