Author: Belinda Howell

5 August 2021

Given the current number of COVID-19 cases in South East Queensland and following the declaration of a COVID-19 hotspot to include the South East Queensland area, employees at residential aged care facilities in impacted areas are asked to limit their work to a single site.

Employees at residential aged care facilities in the Scenic Rim Region, which includes Whiddon Beaudesert Star, who work for more than one residential aged care provider should be asked to choose only one aged care provider to work with during the period of 31 July 2021 up to 14 August 2021. Please note, this time period may be extended.

This is an important step to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 and to protect employees and residents.

It is up to you to choose which provider you wish to work for, either Whiddon or the other residential aged care provider however it is important to note:

• If you choose to work for Whiddon during this period, Whiddon will match your pay and make up the hours that you work at the other provider; and
• If you choose to work at the other provider, Whiddon will place you on either paid or unpaid leave based on your choice.

It may be practical to choose the provider where you work the greater hours, however it is your choice who you choose to work with.

Please note, you should not be worse off in terms of pay as a result of this requirement.

Please get in touch with your manager or supervisor as soon as possible to discuss your own circumstances.

5 August 2021

As you may have heard, a number of local government areas in the Hunter region will be placed into a COVID-19 lockdown from 5pm this evening. This includes the Maitland local government area where Whiddon Largs is located.

Under this lockdown, it means that for now, we are unable to permit visitors to Whiddon Largs, unless under exceptional circumstances and with approval from the Director of Care Services. The lockdown is expected to continue until midnight on 12 August.

We understand that this is a difficult time and we thank you for your patience. Our teams will be working hard to help keep you connected to your loved ones during this time through phone and video calls, wherever possible.

While this measure comes into effect from 5pm, we do encourage you to consider delaying your visit from now, so we can take as many precautions as possible to help keep everyone safe.

We will provide a further update once we know more.

5 August 2021

As you may have heard, a number of local government areas in the Hunter region will be placed into a COVID-19 lockdown from 5pm this evening. This includes the Lake Macquarie local government area where Whiddon Belmont is located.

Under this lockdown, it means that for now, we are unable to permit visitors to Whiddon Belmont, unless under exceptional circumstances and with approval from the Director of Care Services. The lockdown is expected to continue until midnight on 12 August.

We understand that this is a difficult time and we thank you for your patience. Our teams will be working hard to help keep you connected to your loved ones during this time through phone and video calls, wherever possible.

While this measure comes into effect from 5pm, we do encourage you to consider delaying your visit from now, so we can take as many precautions as possible to help keep everyone safe.

We will provide a further update once we know more.

5 August 2021

As you may have heard, a number of local government areas in the Hunter region will be placed into a COVID-19 lockdown from 5pm this evening. This includes the Lake Macquarie local government area where Whiddon Redhead is located.

Under this lockdown, it means that for now, we are unable to permit visitors to Whiddon Redhead, unless under exceptional circumstances and with approval from the Director of Care Services. The lockdown is expected to continue until midnight on 12 August.

We understand that this is a difficult time and we thank you for your patience. Our teams will be working hard to help keep you connected to your loved ones during this time through phone and video calls, wherever possible.

While this measure comes into effect from 5pm, we do encourage you to consider delaying your visit from now, so we can take as many precautions as possible to help keep everyone safe.

We will provide a further update once we know more.

2 August 2021

As you would know, the Government has mandated that all residential aged care employees must have had at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 17 September. We are asking you to get your vaccine as soon as possible, to help protect you, those you love, and our residents and clients.

We’d love to see our Whiddon care homes have 90% of our employees vaccinated by 1st September. When your team reaches your 90% target, we’ll send your team a pack of goodies!

There’s a chance for you to win a $100 voucher!

Over the next 7 weeks, each employee who provides evidence of their COVID vaccination to payroll@whiddon.com.au will go into the draw to win $100 voucher! There will be 5 winners each week from across our regions and if you have already provided your evidence, you will go into the draw too!

So, have your vaccine as soon as possible and be sure to send us your evidence to be in the running to win a voucher!

2 August 2021

We are pleased to let you know that we are introducing rapid antigen testing at Whiddon Hornsby this Wednesday, 4 August.  We trialled this at Whiddon Easton Park last month with the team there, as South-west Sydney is in an area that continues to see high levels of community transmission. We are now pleased to be able to offer this at Whiddon Hornsby, to provide an extra layer of protection as community transmission remains high.

The test is not compulsory, however we strongly encourage you to participate as it’s so important that we are doing everything we can to make sure that no one is unwillingly bringing the virus into our home.

The rapid antigen tests we will be using are not as invasive as the PCR tests that you may have already had at one of the NSW testing clinics, although it does require a nasal swab. Up-take of the tests were high at Easton Park and feedback overwhelmingly indicated that rapid antigen testing gave confidence that employees and residents weren’t at risk.

The results of the rapid test are delivered in just ten minutes. We will be offering this while community transmission is high and while we can access the testing kits. We will then assess the position following this and decide how to proceed from there.

Thank you so much for everything that you are doing. We cant do it with you and we want you to know we are genuinely working very hard behind the scenes to do the very best we can to support you.

2 August 2021

We are pleased to let you know that we will be introducing rapid COVID-19 testing for employees at Whiddon Hornsby from Wednesday 4 August to further protect residents and employees during the evolving COVID-19 situation in Sydney.

Rapid antigen tests are taken on-the-spot and deliver a positive or negative result in just ten minutes. They are approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and under supervision of a registered nurse, employees have been trained to administer the tests themselves and should a positive result be detected, the employee must then take a standard diagnostic test in line with Government advice.

Employees are encouraged to have the test when they come on shift. Research has shown that the frequency of the testing is the most important factor in controlling the spread of infection. Employees will be encouraged to test every day to begin with and then every other day following that, while community transmission remains high.

We are proud to bring this initiative to Whiddon Hornsby as it adds a very important layer of increased protection for residents and employees against COVID-19, while community transmission rates are high. We have been offering this at Whiddon Easton Park for several weeks now as a trial, and are pleased to now be able to offer this at Whiddon Hornsby.

31 July 2021

As you may have heard, 11 South-east Queensland local government areas will be entering a three-day lockdown from 4pm this afternoon due to an increase of COVID-19 cases. This includes the Scenic Rim region, where Whiddon Beaudesert Star is located. This means that from 4pm today, we will not be permitted to accept any visitors to our care home for now, unless under exceptional circumstances and with approval from the Director of Care Services.

We will be assisting where we can to facilitate phone and video calls to help you keep in touch with your loved one. At this stage, we will be unable to offer window visits under these restrictions. We do understand this is a difficult time and will send a further update once we know more, or are in the position to relax the restrictions.

Thank you

Update 30 July 2021

We wanted to provide you with a quick update.

As you would already be aware, stay-at-home orders for Great Sydney will be in place until the end of August. This means that for now, visitors cannot attend Whiddon Easton Park, unless under exceptional circumstances, with approval on a case-by-case basis.

We understand that this is a difficult time for both residents and families and would like to reassure you that our teams are working hard to keep you connected to your loved ones wherever we can through phone and video calls. We are offering increased activities to help residents remain stimulated, engaged and connected during this time.

Whiddon will continue to undertake rapid antigen testing for employees on arrival to their shift each day. To date all employees who have taken this test have returned a negative result. In addition to this, staff who reside in affected LGA’s are required to perform a formal Covid test every 72 hours.

Please note that from time-to-time we may need to take additional precautions, such as staff wearing full PPE, if we have been advised to do so by Public Health. This may be until we can better understand any risk relating to potential casual or close contacts. If there is a positive case of Covid-19, Whiddon has a response plan that has been endorsed by the local Public Health Unit.  Please be reassured that if any resident or employee tests positive to COVID-19, we would contact you.

We are pleased to let you know that we have managed to secure a further in-reach vaccination clinic for employees to have the vaccine onsite. In-reach clinics will help fast-track access to the vaccine for employees, which will contribute to keeping residents safe. It has been mandated by the government for residential aged care employees to have had at least one dose of the vaccine by 17 September.

If you would like to talk to us about your loved one’s care or if you have any concerns, please contact our team. As a reminder, the phone numbers are below:

For Arthur Webb Court: 02 9827 6725
For Easton Park Units: 02 9827 6735
For Sir David Martin: 02 9827 6666
For Taylor House: 02 9827 6774

We thank you for your understanding.

30 July 2021

I hope you are keeping warm and safe. Here is an update on the week that was:

• We welcomed two new Registered Nurses to our team, Jiah and Princess, and are so pleased they have joined us
• We have a new Enrolled Nurse, Lisa, and we are also very pleased she has joined the Whiddon Moree team
• We are training some of our Assistants in Nursing to take on the role of dispensing medications.  There are eight team members that are undertaking this further training
• We are now providing care training to all team members daily (during the handover process), to ensure that your loved ones are looked after with the best possible care
• Unfortunately church services are still not able to go ahead due to the restrictions placed on us, however residents wishing to participate in church services can do this online.  Our Leisure Officers are happy to help set them up to watch these
• We held a Christmas in July event last Sunday, 25 of July and it was a very successful day, enjoyed by all.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Martha