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Wound Care Supplies for Aged Care Facilities: The Complete Stocking Guide
The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards took effect on 1 November 2025, and Standard 5 makes wound and skin integrity management an explicit clinical care obligation. That single change moves the stock cupboard from a stores question to a compliance one. A facility that can't show wound care supplies are reliably on hand doesn't have a stores gap, it has a Standards evidence gap.
Your aged care wound care supplies start with the residents, not the catalogue. Map what your population actually presents with, then stock to it and set the par levels, storage and ordering rhythm that keep it defensible at accreditation. This guide walks a facility through all of that, category by category, and our wound care and injury guidance hub links the clinical detail behind it.
What wound care supplies should an aged care facility stock?
An aged care facility should stock five core categories: wound cleansing (sterile saline), primary dressings (foam, hydrocolloid, alginate or hydrofiber, film and island dressings), fixation and retention (retention bandages and tapes), gloves and PPE, and sterile dressing packs with instruments. Standard 5 (Clinical Care) requires effective wound and skin integrity management, which in practice depends on these supplies being reliably on hand.
That list is the floor, not the finish. What you hold in each category depends on the wounds your residents actually have. Four profiles cover most of it: skin tears on fragile ageing skin, pressure injuries, chronic wounds such as venous leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers, and minor acute wounds and burns. Skin tears are one of the most common wound types in residential aged care, and plain gauze and tape are the wrong choice for them: the International Skin Tear Advisory Panel recommends a silicone dressing where available and advises against plain gauze without a silicone contact layer, because an atraumatic dressing cuts pain on removal and the number of dressing changes.
The most common wound care mistake we see in facilities is stocking one product for everything: a single foam dressing ordered by the carton and applied to skin tears, heavily exuding leg ulcers and everything between. A skin tear needs low-trauma, silicone-faced adhesion. A high-exudate wound needs an absorbent hydrofiber or superabsorbent. Range in stock is not indulgence, it is what stops the wrong dressing slowing a wound down.
The core stock list, category by category
Wound cleansing. Sterile saline for irrigation, in single-use ampoules or pods. Antiseptics are not for routine cleansing. Sterile saline is the default. Wounds Australia accepts potable tap water for simpler dressings only when a sterile solution isn't practical and a risk assessment rates the risk as low, and never where surgical aseptic technique is required.
Primary dressings. This is the category that carries the most confusion, so hold a real range: foam for moderate exudate, hydrocolloid for light exudate and granulating wounds, alginate or hydrofiber for heavy exudate and cavities, transparent film for low-exudate cover, and island dressings for minor acute wounds. For the clinical reasoning on which dressing suits which wound, we cover it in wound dressing selection in aged care and in foam vs hydrofiber dressings rather than restating it here. Browse the full wound dressings and foam dressings ranges to build the list.
Antimicrobial dressings. Hold these as one defined stock line for wounds showing local infection signs, used on clinical direction rather than as a default.
Fixation and retention. Retention bandages, tubular retention and skin-friendly tapes to hold primary dressings without adding trauma at removal.
Gloves and PPE. Non-sterile examination gloves for general care and for short, technically simple dressing changes (standard aseptic technique), and sterile gloves for complex dressings that need surgical aseptic technique, as Wounds Australia's aseptic technique consensus sets out, plus aprons and eye protection where indicated. Keep disposable gloves at par in every treatment area.
Dressing packs and instruments. Sterile dressing packs, sterile scissors or forceps where used, and a sharps disposal route.
Burns are their own category with their own stocking logic, so we hand that list to burns dressings for aged care rather than duplicate it here.
Set par levels from bed count and wound prevalence
A stock list without quantities fails the first busy week. Set imprest minimums, a fixed reorder point per line, from two numbers: your bed count and your current wound prevalence. A 90-bed facility carrying a high pressure-injury and leg-ulcer load will turn over absorbent dressings far faster than a low-acuity home of the same size.
Keep the working core in the treatment room and hold only limited floor stock, so items don't drift and expire in resident rooms. Treat the reorder point as a trigger, not a monthly guess: when a line hits its minimum it goes on the next order regardless of the calendar. Review par levels when acuity shifts, a run of new skin tears or a cluster of new venous ulcers, so the imprest tracks reality rather than last year's order.
Storage, rotation and expiry
Sterile stock is only sterile while its packaging is intact. Store dressings clean, dry and secure, away from heat and moisture, and pull any packet that is crushed, torn or damp even when the printed expiry is fine. Check each packet for tears or a broken seal, because a breached packet can no longer be assumed sterile.
Rotate on first-expiry-first-out and run a scheduled expiry check, monthly is workable for most facilities, so short-dated stock is used or replaced before it is wasted.
Ordering rhythm and the audit trail
A standing reorder cycle does two jobs. It keeps the imprest topped up, and it generates a dated record of what was ordered, received and used.
The Commission's own wound management guidance lists failure to document the wound assessment properly among the common mistakes it sees, and Standard 5 includes giving residents access to the products their care requires. A dated order and usage record is one practical way to show the supply side of that. A monthly reorder against fixed par levels suits most facilities, with a lighter weekly top-up on the fast-moving lines such as gloves, saline and retention tape so the high-turnover items never run to zero between orders.
When that rhythm and its paperwork stretch your clinical team, a fixed monthly order against your par levels takes much of the load, and the order history becomes the trail without a nurse building it by hand. Facilities in and around Bendigo can also ask us by phone or email about our onsite first aid kit audits and restocks.
How aged care wound funding actually works
One point causes repeated confusion, so it's worth stating plainly. Residential aged care facilities buy wound consumables from operational funding under the AN-ACC model. Residents are not eligible for the Chronic Wound Consumables Scheme, which funds eligible community patients living at home, not people in residential care. If you want that distinction in full, the Chronic Wound Consumables Scheme explainer sets it out.
The Support at Home program, which replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025, applies to home care recipients rather than residential facilities. For a facility, the practical takeaway is simple: your wound supplies come out of the operational budget, so procurement discipline is a cost lever, not only a compliance one.
Stock that doubles as Standards evidence
A documented stocking system, the right categories, par levels set to acuity, controlled storage, and a reorder cycle with records, is the same thing twice: reliable supply for residents and a record that helps show Standard 5 is met. Build it once and it works for both.
FAD supplies wound care consumables to aged care facilities Australia-wide from a single account. Build your stock list from the full wound care range, then call 03 5443 2239 or email info@firstaiddistributions.com.au to set up regular facility ordering.