Marius Coomans

Following  last week’s update (Advice No.9), I am very pleased to advise that we continue to have a steady calm throughout the Village and with our Home Care clients.  Perhaps our biggest hurdle has been the acquisition of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  The team has managed to procure a new delivery of digital thermometers that will be issued to all Home Care staff as well as within the Village.  We had several deliveries of face masks and hand sanitiser which means we are very well placed to deal with any contingency.  We have a supply issue with gloves however we are utilising alternate supply chain sources so I do not anticipate any problems.

Our flu vaccination program is now back on track – all ATV residents have received their vaccinations and we have now secured vaccine for all staff and volunteers.  Anyone who requires assistance please contact Sophia or the RN on duty.  Our home care team will also speak to their clients to provide any assistance or support in obtaining their vaccinations.

During these past weeks,  the shopping service for our home care consumers has been adversely impacted with shortages in essential groceries. In consultation with consumers, service times were changed to 6:30 am, and we had a outstanding outcome with satisfied consumers. Our carers effectively adapted to this change with ease so many thanks to the care team to take this challenge head on.

We will soon require all visitors to have had a recent flu vaccination. You will be asked to produce a certificate when entering the village. Alternatively, you might like to place a certificate on file by emailing a copy to fluvax@abeltasman.org.au

I again want to pass on my thanks to our Activities team who have been working hard with the residents and external providers for a wide range of stimulating activities and contacting families through Zoom…well done.  Next week we will be starting a new initiative with our friends from Information and Cultural Exchange…more of this in next week’s update.  Until then, stay safe and the next scheduled update will be provided next Friday 24 April.  As always, you can email me at gen.mgr@abeltasman.com.au or call during business hours on 9645 3388.

Glenn Kirkman
General Manager

Following  Monday’s update (Advice No.8), we are now well into our new routine and the restrictions that residents, families and staff are now working under appears to be working well. There has been a plateauing of COVID-19 numbers resulting in no further changes to the Government imposed restrictions.  This being the case we will now scale back our updates to a weekly update with review either at the end of the month or whenever there is any significant message/change to the situation.

The flu vaccination program is going well for residents, however we have a problem with getting the vaccine for staff due to a national shortage.  It would appear that aged care staff have not been afforded any priority and there is no indication when this will be resolved.  Sophia is continuing to chase up our pharmacy in the hope that we can get this done as a large collective.  In the meantime, I have instructed Home Care staff, as a matter of priority, to seek their vaccination visas via their local doctor/pharmacy.  Can I also strongly urge our home care consumers to do likewise as a matter of urgency. As a demonstration of commitment I was able to have my vaccination this morning…I hope you enjoy the photo!  If we are unable to source the vaccine by next week, I will instruct the ATV staff to similarly get this done via their local GP/pharmacy.

A vote of thanks to our Activities team who have been working hard with the residents and external providers for a wide range of stimulating activities and contacting families through Zoom… well done.

Wishing you all a safe, restful Easter and the next update will be provided next Friday 17 April.  As always, you can email me at gen.mgr@abeltasman.com.au or call during business hours on 9645 3388.
Glenn Kirkman
General Manager

Dear Residents, consumers, families, friends and staff

Following last week’s update (Advice No.7), we continue to see a good level of compliance with our control strategies however staff report there was an increase in families wanting to go outside the timings or restrictions.  I need to reinforce that these restrictions have been imposed for the protection of all residents/consumers and it is essential that we follow them to avoid the need to put in place even more controls as sadly we have seen fatalities within aged care facilities. As with the initial advice provided, the Government has mandated that visits are limited to a maximum of two visitors per day for a maximum of two hours and that the visits are to take place in the person’s room or open space.  There are to be no visits done in communal areas.  Effective from tomorrow (Tuesday 07 April 2020) the hours of visits is to be adjusted to the hours of 1pm to 5pm daily thus avoiding the lunch service and ensuring that we maintain social distancing to prevent unnecessary contact between residents and other visitors.

The zoom video contact system has been tested and is now in place.  If you want to arrange for this service, you need to contact the activities staff to set it up and arrange a mutually agreeable time.  Contact details are:
Units 1A to 25 – Janina (mailto:janina@abeltasman.org.au)
Units 101 to 140 – Katja (mailto:katja@abeltasman.org.au)

Please send an email with your contact details to  activities@abeltasman.com.au and in the subject line indicate Zoom Contact for your relative and room number.  Either Katja or Janina will then communicate with you on getting this in place.  I am also pleased to advise that the flu vaccination program for residents has commenced.  We are still waiting on supplies to be provided for staff which we hope to commence prior to Easter.  Please keep following the Government updates on the virus and measures to keep safe. 

For your convenience, the following links may assist you:
Australian Government Department of Health – https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert
NSW Health Department – https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus.aspx
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission – https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/covid-19-coronavirus-information

With Easter coming up this weekend, the next update will be provided this coming Thursday 09 April.  Thank you for all your support during this time.  As always, you can email me at gen.mgr@abeltasman.com.au or call during business hours on 9645 3388.

Glenn Kirkman
General Manager

Dear Residents, consumers, families, friends and staff,

Following our Friday update there are two new changes that are impacting the Village.  The first is a recommendation that anyone over the age of 70 or are health compromised do not leave home unless there are exceptional reasons to do so.  Accordingly, we have met with a number of residents today and advised that we are now requesting residents to follow the government recommendation and not to go outside the front gate. 

This has particular relevance to our home care consumers.  Our coordinators are assisting you with information on these changes and how it might affect your services.  As members in the community the ultimate decision is yours and we will assist you with reflecting any changes withing your current service plan.  We do however strongly urge you to follow the guidelines and if it is necessary to get something from outside the home, consider having the care worker do this or alternatively ensure you have appropriate PPE (face mask, gloves) wash hands or use hand sanitiser regularly and maintain the social distance/restriction on having people around you.

I have received a number of enquiries concerning the issue of lockdown – this is currently not a Government direction and is over to providers to implement their strategies in controlling COVID-19.  At this current time we consider our strategies to be working and appropriate for the control of COVID-19.  In summary, we have strengthened PPE, temperature check all staff and residents each day, have implemented social distancing strategies within the dining room and all gatherings, restricted site access to external contractors and deliveries and reduced the visiting hours and duration of visits for residents.

Each of these controls has some effect.  The management team sat in on a webinar that looked at the learnings to be gained from the BaptistCare incident at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge.  As a response we reviewed our current approaches as well as our outbreak controls, and we are satisfied that these are appropriate at this time.  In the event that there is any change we will of course adjust as required.  It is a significant issue to deny residents social contact and restrict their movements in and around the Village.  If any resident or family has a concern we are able to implement an individual strategy to help satisfy their requirements including self isolation in the room where we will deliver all services including meals.  Please contact the Care Manager (Sophia) or the RN on duty if you want to discuss this further.

The Government has also reduced social contact to a maximum of two people.  We are strongly urging residents to avoid all non-essential contact with others and would seek family support in this regard.  Within the workplace, we are now looking to ‘cohorting’ staff.  In essence this will mean that staff will be allocated specific areas to work in over the foreseeable future to minimise cross-contamination.  We are now looking at all non-essential staff working flexibly from home where possible or reducing their hours at work.  To improve the social connection for our residents, Janina and Katja have set up zoom so that families and friends can have real time chats together…Katja will be sending out a notice on this to families.  We also continue to have allied support within the facility – particularly dedicated physiotherapy (they are only working here) which is essential for those residents requiring assistance with mobility and range of motion.

Finally, I wish to provide an update on our flu vaccination program for 2020.  We have received the vaccine for residents and are working with our doctors to write the prescriptions so that these can be administered.  The registered nurses will be contacting residents or their representatives to provide the authority to give the flu vaccinations.  The Government announced that commencing 01 May 2020 all visitors and staff must have a current flu vaccination (i.e within 12 months).  Relatives and visitors are strongly urged to have their vaccinations before the 01 May deadline.  On the staff side, we have advised staff that this requirement is now mandatory and we will be commencing staff vaccination in the next two weeks.

Thanks again for all the messages of support. If there is anything additional that you would like to bring to our attention, feel free to email me – gen.mgr@abeltasman.com.au or call 9645 3388 during normal business hours.

Glenn Kirkman
General Manager

Dear Residents, consumers, families, friends and staff,

Following the implementation of the tighter restrictions imposed from midnight on Wednesday, we have seen a relatively smooth transition.  In what is a stressful time for all, the staff are very appreciative of the support provided by residents and families. We have noted good compliance with the new visiting time restrictions (12-5pm each day) and 2 visitors per day; maximum of 2 hours.  We have implemented social distancing in our dining room for all meals – this is working well and my thanks go to the residents for their assistance in making this work and the staff who continue to work flexibly and always with a smile.  We have also applied the same to our staff meetings – we conducted our first meeting within the hall with a number of residents and visitors in attendance…I think this was well received.

As mentioned in Advice notice No.4 we have introduced compulsory face masks for all staff and visitors.  We are very limited in our ability to provide this to our staff and residents.  I would again ask families to provide their own masks which can be purchased from any pharmacy – we have been advised that Chester Hill Pharmacy currently has these available for purchase.  We understand that this may not always be the case and if so, we are able to provide small amounts at cost.  I wish to acknowledge some families have arranged with Sophia to purchase boxes of masks to be placed in the rooms and this is invoiced as an additional service.  Can family representatives please pass on this information to those visiting as some appear to be unaware of this requirement.

There are two developments within Aged Care sectors across Sydney.  The first is acknowledging some facilities have gone into ‘lock down’.  We are not contemplating this as long as we continue to see compliance with our current controls and there is no mandated requirement.  The second involves one new confirmed case (COVID-19) in both Quakers Hill and Bankstown aged care facilities. NSW Health is following up all close and casual contacts of both confirmed cases and both facilities are in lockdown (NSW Department of Health 25.3.2020). We are aware of the two facilities in question and can confirm that we do not have any staff working in either of these facilities.

Finally, a number of services can be conducted.  These are physiotherapy and podiatry allied health as well as hairdressing services.  We will be contacting Rosa to confirm she is able to resume services and our thanks to Chester Hill Physiotherapy who are providing a dedicated service to the Village which minimises potential exposure to COVID-19.

Please stay well and we strongly remind folks to follow the directions to self-isolate and maintain good social distance separations wherever you need to go out.  Likewise just like the Village, hand-washing is a central plank of prevention.  As always if there is any restriction that you feel strongly about please contact me on ph: 9645 3388 to arrange a face to face meeting with myself and the clinical manager (Sophia) so that we can make a suitable plan that can work for all parties.  Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me during normal business hours.  The next update is scheduled for Monday 30 March.

Glenn Kirkman
General Manager