Year: 2021

22 December 2021

Due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases identified in the region, as a precaution, we will be introducing rapid antigen testing at Whiddon Narrabri Robert Young and Whiddon Narrabri Jessie Hunt, from tomorrow.

This will involve rapid antigen testing of visitors on every second day. Our employees will also be tested via rapid antigen testing.

This testing adds an important, additional layer of protection at this time. We do appreciate your cooperation with this, as it does help to keep everyone in our family safe, which is our highest priority.

To help manage this effectively, for now, visits will take place during office hours, from 9am until 4pm, and on weekends between 10am and 2pm.

We wish to remind you of the following when you visit:

• Please wear a surgical mask (supplied by Whiddon) at all times
• Bookings are essential
• Visits are to be in residents’ rooms only – please do not meet in common areas, do not visit other residents that you haven’t booked in to see, or stop to chat in corridors etc. We know that this is difficult, but it is an important safety measure at this time
• Please ensure that you check in when visiting, using the Service NSW QR code AND our visitor sign-in system
• Please refrain from visiting if you have any COVID-19 symptoms, are awaiting a COVID-19 test result, have been to any locations or venues of concern, or are a close or casual contact of a person with confirmed COVID-19 (unless they have completed their self-isolation and testing requirements).

We thank you for your understanding and support. We do know that this is a challenging time and genuinely appreciate you taking the important steps above, to help us protect our residents, visitors and employees.

22 December 2021

Further to our update yesterday, we are very pleased to let you know that the final negative COVID-19 test result came through overnight.

This means that we are once again able to welcome back visitors. We truly thank you for your understanding and patience as we know this has been a difficult time.

Please note the important information below regarding visiting Easton Park:

• Visits must be pre-booked
• Visits with loved ones are strongly recommended to take place outdoors
• Visitors must wear a mask at all times
• All visitors must have a rapid antigen test on arrival and sign-in
• Please ensure that you practice social distancing at all times, and good hand hygiene
• Do not visit if you are unwell, are awaiting a COVID-19 test result, are a close or casual contact or have ben to any venues or locations of concern

It is important that we continue to stay vigilant and all take steps to help keep everyone safe.

Again, we thank you for your understanding and support.

22 December 2021

We are writing to you to update you and acknowledge the challenges with staffing levels over the recent weeks. Whilst it’s important to acknowledge these challenges it’s also important to let you know everything we are doing to try and overcome them.

Firstly, we’d like to thank those of you that continue to come to work each day even when the circumstances are challenging. Your dedication to your team members and our residents has not gone unnoticed and we would like to thank you for your efforts.

Despite all our efforts, unfortunately circumstances continue to challenge us. It is during these times, more than ever we have to work together to ensure we keep each other and our residents safe.

You will be aware that we have had a positive COVID-19 case at Taylor House and in the Admin team. In addition, with the increased COVID-19 community transmission we are experiencing unprecedented levels of staff needing to self-isolate due to being close or casual contacts. At this stage we presently have 50 staff members who are unable to attend their shifts due to needing to self-isolate.  In addition to this we have had:

1. A small number staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, requiring them to not be able to attend work for a few weeks;
2. We have unprecedented numbers of staff requesting emergency leave without notice given and requesting months at a time off;
3. Given the time of year, some staff were approved annual leave, however this was months ago, at the time that this leave could be replaced.

It has never been our intention to place increased demands on staff, however unfortunately, given the circumstances above we are in a situation where there are simply no extra staff to replace the number of shifts that we have. Replacing 50 employees at short notice is very challenging under the best of circumstances.

What are we doing to resolve the issue?

• We are working with People and Culture to assist with recruitment including short term casual placements over the Christmas and Holiday period.
• We have requested support from our local support services team to man the RA Testing stations which will provide us coverage over the Christmas period ensuring any care staff can focus on providing care.
• We have reached out to local universities to recruit students into support or AIN roles.
• We are working with various recruitment agencies to supply temporary staff to fill vacant shifts.

From you we simply ask that if you require time off that you adhere to the policies and provide sufficient notice so that your shift can be replaced and your team mates can be supported.

We want you to know that we are working to improve the staffing numbers at Easton Park and do hope that we see improvements over the coming weeks. We want to thank you for your efforts and support. We are all in this together and as a team we can work towards overcoming the current challenges.

We also want you to know that we are very grateful for all you do. In the New Year we will plan a special celebration to thank you for all your efforts.

21 December 2021

We wanted to provide a further update to you about welcoming visitors back to Taylor House. We are still waiting for one more test result to come through to us. We have escalated this and asked for this result to be sent back to us as soon as possible, however due to high levels of testing at the moment, there are delays.

We expect this result to come back sometime tonight. We will update you first thing in the morning and we thank you for your patience.

21 December 2021

We wanted to provide you with an update about a few matters relating to Whiddon Easton Park.

We have recently experienced some challenges due to the increase in community transmission of COVID-19, which has seen a number of our employees having to self-isolate as a precaution. This has put extra pressure on our teams, who are working incredibly hard to keep everyone in our family safe. We ask for your patience at this time as it may take a little longer for us to answer your call, or to reach us. We want to reassure you though, that this does not impact the care your loved one receives.

We’ve also recently seen a number of visitors show aggression towards our employees. We do understand that this is an incredibly difficult time right now for everyone, and with rapid antigen testing in place, there are extra steps that we ask you to take when you visit. Rapid antigen testing adds an important layer of protection at this time and helps to keep your loved ones, our employees, and you, safe. We know it is a big ask, but it is very important, along with other precautionary measures such as pre-booking your visit to ensure we only have a certain number of visitors at any one time, and wearing a mask.

Our employees really are doing the very best they can to help keep everyone safe, engaged, stimulated and connected to their loved ones.  We do genuinely understand how challenging this time is for our visitors, but we do ask for your patience at this time.

On behalf of the entire team at Easton Park, we thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

21 December 2021

Further to our update to you about a Whiddon Redhead employee testing positive to COVID-19, we continue to follow the advice of the local public health unit.

This includes conducting testing of employees and residents as directed by the local public health unit. We are currently awaiting the test results. Please note that there may be delays to us receiving the results due to the high testing numbers currently.

We are continuing to conduct rapid testing of all staff prior to them entering Whiddon Redhead. All of these tests have returned negative results, which is pleasing.

The public health unit have advised us today that further testing will be required on Boxing Day. This means that upon their advice, unfortunately we will need to restrict visitation over the Christmas period. We know that this is very challenging to hear, especially at this time of year. Please know that our teams will be working incredibly hard to ensure that residents can connect via phone or video calls with their families wherever possible on Christmas Day. We know how important this is and we are committed to ensuring that we do everything possible to keep you connected to your loved one throughout this time.

Once we know any more about the situation, we will provide a further update to you.

We understand that this is a difficult time for everyone, but we want you to know that it is our highest priority to keep everyone in our family safe and well, and we are doing everything we can to achieve this.

20 December 2021

Due to increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the Greater Sydney region, to help keep residents, employees and visitors safe while community transmission rates are high, we have implemented the following additional safety measures:

• All visitors must wear N95 masks and face shields
  
• In line with public health advice, we will strongly encourage all visits to take place outdoors

The local public health unit have advised us that if your loved one returns to Whiddon from a hospital visit or any kind of outing, they will need to have a PCR test 48 hours after they return and isolate until a negative result is received. This is to help limit any potential spread of COVID-19.

We do ask that you please consider delaying your visit for now if you can. This will help us to reduce the risk of COVID-19 from entering our care homes at this time. Our teams can support you to stay connected via video and phone calls where possible. We also have the Whiddon Connect app that you can download and book a video call in with our team.

Please note that this advice may change if NSW Health provide further updates.

If you do visit, please ensure that you:

• do not visit if you are unwell or have been to any locations of concern
• book in your visit prior to visiting
• have a rapid antigen test on site, prior to visiting their loved one
• refrain from meeting in common areas, or visiting other residents
• do not visit if you are awaiting a COVID-19 test result, are a close or casual contact of a person with confirmed COVID-19 unless they have completed their self-isolation and testing requirements.
• do not visit if you have been to an overseas country of concern in the last 14 days or have been to other overseas countries (not of concern) in the previous 14 days, unless they are: fully vaccinated and have received a negative PCR test 7 days or later after arrival in NSW

We  know this is a challenging time and we thank you for your understanding. Our highest priority is to keep everyone in the Whiddon family safe and we thank you for helping us do all that we can to achieve this.

20 December 2021

Due to increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the Hunter and Greater Sydney regions, to help keep residents, employees and visitors safe while community transmission rates are high, we have implemented the following additional safety measures:

• All visitors must wear N95 masks and face shields
• Visits should take place outside as much as possible, to minimise visitors entering common areas

As mentioned in an update on Friday, we ask that you please consider delaying your visit for now if you can. This will help us to reduce the risk of COVID-19 from entering our care homes at this time. Our teams can support you to stay connected via video and phone calls where possible. We also have the Whiddon Connect app that you can download and book a video call in with our team.

Please note that this advice may change if NSW Health provide further updates.

If you do visit, please ensure that you:

• do not visit if you are unwell or have been to any locations of concern
• have a rapid antigen test on site, prior to visiting your loved one
• show evidence of having the required doses of a COVID-19 vaccine
• refrain from meeting in common areas, or visiting other residents
• remain vigilant and take steps to avoid the potential spread of the virus to our regional areas
• do not visit if you are awaiting a COVID-19 test result, are a close or casual contact of a person with confirmed COVID-19 unless they have completed their self-isolation and testing requirements.
• do not visit if you have been to an overseas country of concern in the last 14 days or have been to other overseas countries (not of concern) in the previous 14 days, unless they are: fully vaccinated and have received a negative PCR test 7 days or later after arrival in NSW

We  know this is a challenging time and we thank you for your understanding. Our highest priority is to keep everyone in the Whiddon family safe and we thank you for helping us do all that we can to achieve this.

20 December 2021

As mentioned in previous updates, it was expected that we would be able to welcome back visitors to Taylor House from tomorrow, Tuesday 21 December. This was on the basis that all tests (taken every 72 hours), returned negative results, as advised by the local public health unit.

While all tests to date have come back negative, which is very pleasing, we are still waiting on several test results to be returned to us. Due to high testing numbers at the moment, we have seen test results take longer to come through. Unfortunately this is out of our control.

As soon as all tests results are back with us, and we are in the position to once again welcome visitors back to Taylor House, we will send you a further update to advise you of this.

We thank you for your patience and understanding. We know this has been a challenging time.

18 December 2021

We have been informed that an employee at Whiddon Redhead has tested positive to COVID-19. As a precaution, employees must wear full PPE. We have also closed our care homes at Whiddon Redhead to visitors for now, while we assess the risk of potential exposure.

We are working closely with the local Public Health Unit and following their advice, and have activated our COVID-19 response plan to ensure all necessary precautionary measures are implemented. Our COVID-19 response plan is robust and ensures we prioritise the safety of residents and employees.

Those considered contacts of the employee who tested positive, will be contacted directly. There has been no recommendation at this stage by the PHU for employees not directly impacted to self-isolate, and as such, employees can continue to come to work and attend their normal shifts.

We understand that this is a challenging time for everyone, but we want you to know that it is our highest priority to keep everyone in our family safe and well, and we are doing everything we can to achieve this.

We ask that if you have any concerns to please speak to your manager in the first instance. Please also remember our confidential EAP service contactable 24/7 on 1800 818 728

This is a timely reminder to all of us that COVID-19 is still very much with us. We encourage you to have your Booster shot and send evidence of your vaccination to payroll@whiddon.com.au at your earliest convenience. Eligibility for booster shots are for those that have had their second dose at least 5 months ago.

We are also committed to keeping you up-to-date of the situation and will provide a further update once we know more about the situation.