8 November 2021
Dear Team,
Firstly, I want to thank you for all that you do in caring for the residents here at Whiddon Easton Park. I know that the past 18 months have been a very difficult time for all. Having to navigate the pandemic and the additional pressures of wearing PPE and the RA-Testing, along with your own personal challenges that COVID-19 has brought, could not have been easy. I want you to know that we appreciate everything you have done, and continue to do in keeping everyone safe.
Recently, many of you have had to face additional pressures due to staff shortages. These shortages are due to a variety of reasons including:
- Single Site Working Arrangements
- Staff being identified as close or casual contacts of a COVID-19 positive person
- Planned leave (Please note that planned leave is only approved if there is staff to cover these shifts, at the time these were approved the shifts could be covered)
However, it is disappointing to see that over the last week (Monday 1- Sunday 7 November), we experienced multiple staff calling in sick, applying for emergency leave or staff cancelling their shifts. While we accept that people get sick and that there are emergencies that may arise from time to time, the number of staff that didn’t work their rostered shifts last week was unprecedented. This resulted in additional stress on colleagues.
While we did as much as we could to replace the staff that were absent, unfortunately, we could not replace all shifts. We do thank everyone who did go the extra mile to support the residents during this time.
As a reminder to all staff, if you do apply for leave, we will only approve your leave if there is a sufficient number of staff to cover your shift. Now that both our state and international borders are open again, I do expect to see an increase number of leave applications.
Please be assured that we will do our very best to accommodate your requests, however we will not be able to approve leave if there is not a sufficient number of staff to replace you. We will offer you an alternative time, however our priority needs to be resident care.
Thank you for your understanding.
Kind Regards
Sharon Fletcher
Operations Manager (Easton Park)