Aged care provider Allity has reportedly sacked dozens of enrolled nurses from its Morphettville and Walkerville sites in South Australia.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) says the sacking of the nurses will put patients' lives at risk.

Allity runs residential aged care homes across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

The company has been accused of sacking around 30 enrolled nurses to replace them with lower-paid registered nurses and personal care workers.

In a statement, Allity said the claims about its staffing changes were “misleading, deceptive and alarmist”.

The company says said registered nurses will have the responsibility for medication management, and that personal care workers would only administer medication under supervision.

An Allity spokesperson was keen to point out that that staffing changes came only after careful consideration of residents’ interests.

ANMF South Australian branch chief executive officer Elizabeth Dabars says there is a big difference between the sacked workers and those that will replace them.

“Enrolled nurses are an excellent skilled-level worker who provide care to the residents and they are stripping away an entire level of worker in their residential aged care facilities,” she said.

“We believe it will compromise quality care outcomes.

“We believe that they have stripped more than 230 hours per week in each of these sites and that translates to approximately 20 minutes of care per resident per day.

“It means the already stretched care workers and registered workers are stretched even further.”