Dear ATV friends and relatives,

I wanted to communicate with you, given the events which have taken place at the SummitCare aged care facility over the weekend. 

Please be assured we have no diagnosed cases of COVID 19 amongst our staff or residents. All staff are screened very closely prior to commencing work. If any staff member has any symptoms they are not permitted to come on site and must get a COVID test and isolate until they get their result. To date, we have had a number of staff who have had COVID tests due to flu like symptoms. All tests have returned a negative result. Staff are also directed to be tested if they have visited any areas of concern, and isolate until they get a result.

In relation to staff vaccination, as you would know, the Prime Minister only announced last week, that vaccination would be mandatory for aged care staff. It was the Government’s original intention that aged care staff would be vaccinated at the same time as residents. However, lack of vaccine supply meant that staff would need to get vaccinated through their own channels. 

We have recently been advised by the Department that a vaccination clinic will be held at ATV for our staff. We have yet to be told of the date for that clinic. ATV reports the numbers of vaccinated staff through the My Aged Care portal. At this stage, 45% of our staff have either had 1 or 2 doses of vaccine. All staff must have received their first dose by mid September as mandated last week.

If you have any personal concerns, I am more than happy for you to contact me. Please be assured, as always, that our first priority is the health and safety of our residents. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Margaret Russell,
General Manager

Here is an update to our visitor policy from 17th March 2021

Visits

• Hours: mornings from 9.30 to 12.00 and afternoons from 2.00 to 4.30 with no booking needed (yeah!).
• No time limit for each visit, but finish by 5.30 pm unless approved by management.
• No total visitor number limit, but visitors to remain in resident ‘s room (not in communal areas).
• Flu Vaccine not mandatory, but encouraged for all visitors.

Masks
No longer mandatory for both staff and visitors.

Restrictions
Certain restrictions will apply from time to time as directed by the Department of Health. Accordingly, we update the visiting page as necessary.

Outings
Continue current policy, family to call RN and book to arrange ( 24 hours in advance if possible)

Special Considerations and requests to be discussed with Harry Wu ( Clinical Manager)

Regards,
Sophia Markwell
General Manager