12 July 2021
New check-in requirement for NSW care homes
From today, NSW Health requires all residential aged care homes in NSW to ensure that all employees, visitors and contractors check-in every time they visit using the Service NSW QR Code.
This means that you are now required to sign-in twice when you visit a Whiddon care home.
Please check-in through:
- The Service NSW app
- Whiddon’s Visitor Sign-in system
We understand that signing in twice will add a small amount of extra time when you visit, however, it is very important that you sign in twice. The Whiddon visitor sign-in system is a way that we can meet the Government’s COVID-19 screening requirements for employees, visitors and contractors entering our homes. This helps us with contact tracing and ensures that the required screening questions are answered by any person entering our care homes. This helps to keep everyone in our family safe.
We thank you for your understanding as we implement this important new measure.
Please note that Whiddon Easton Park and Whiddon Hornsby must currently exclude visitors due to the COVID-19 situation in Sydney. All of our other care homes in NSW are able to permit two visitors per resident, per day, however these visits must be pre-booked and all visitors are required to wear a surgical mask and meet in the resident’s room.
COVID-19 vaccine mandate
We wanted to provide an update about the Government’s recent decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for residential aged care employees. Whiddon fully supports the announcement, as protecting those in our care and the people caring for them, is our highest priority.
From 17 September it will be a requirement for all aged care employees, including those at Whiddon, to have had at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, we are encouraging our employees who have not yet had their vaccine, to have it sooner. For some months now, we have been actively encouraging our employees to have the vaccine through running a number of internal campaigns.
We have also been advocating for in-reach workplace clinics to administer the vaccine onsite to employees. Currently, there is a waitlist to have the Pfizer vaccine, so there is a delay due to the lack of access to this vaccine. In-reach clinics will help fast-track access to the vaccine. We have already started to secure in-reach clinics, including at Easton Park, which will be held this week.
The recent outbreak in Sydney shows that COVID-19 remains a threat to our communities. We have been actively encouraging our employees to have the vaccine for some time now, however up until recently is was not mandated. While it is not mandatory for visitors, we are also encouraging visitors to our care homes to have the vaccine. It is one of the best lines of defence that we have against the virus.