Author: despinao

1 June 2022

We wanted to provided you with an update on our Whiddon Largs care home. We continue to work closely with the local Public Health Unit and are pleased to advise you that from today, residents in the Casuarina wing are no longer required to isolate. This is welcome news and we are carefully managing this de-isolation to ensure the safety of residents.

The local Public Health Unit have advised that residents in the Jacaranda wing remain in isolation at this stage. We will continue to monitor our residents in this wing and provide further updates as they come through. Please be assured that if your loved one tested positive to COVID-19, you would be contacted directly by the Registered Nurse on duty.

From tomorrow, Casuarina wing may return to pre-outbreak arrangement (two fully vaccinated visitors aged 12 years and over, plus two children under 12 years per day). For now, visitation to the Jacaranda wing is limited to one nominated partner-in-care. All visits must be pre-booked. All visitors are required to complete a rapid antigen test as a condition of entry and wear an N95 mask. Partners-in-care may be asked to wear additional PPE at this time such as a face shield. Please refrain from visiting if you are unwell.

On behalf of the team at Whiddon Largs, we sincerely thank you for your cooperation and support over this challenging time.

13 May 2022 

Since our last update, we have had an employee test positive to COVID-19 and continue to work with the Public Health Unit to manage the situation. In pleasing news, we no longer have any residents testing positive to COVID-19.

As a reminder, all employees and visitors are required to undertake rapid antigen testing as a condition of entry to Whiddon Narrabri Robert Young and will be asked to wear an N95 mask and face shield, which will be provided upon entry to the home.

We thank you for your ongoing support and assistance.

13 May 2022 

Since our last update, we have had an employee test positive to COVID-19 and continue to work with the Public Health Unit to manage the situation. In pleasing news, we no longer have any residents testing positive to COVID-19.

As a reminder, all employees and visitors are required to undertake rapid antigen testing as a condition of entry to Whiddon Narrabri Robert Young and will be asked to wear an N95 mask and face shield, which will be provided upon entry to the home.

Please ensure all visits are pre-booked by contacting our care home directly.

We thank you for your ongoing support and assistance.

12 May 2022

Since our last update, we have had an additional two residents at Whiddon Wee Waa test positive to COVID-19. We do also have residents currently isolating as a result of being a close contact, and families have been notified of this. In light of the situation, we have been able to identify the source of transmission and are confident with our robust systems and quick processes implemented early on, we have been able to reduce the spread within our care home.

We are currently conducting additional COVID testing and are working very close with the Public Health Unit to manage the situation.

Employees will continue wearing full PPE and visitations will remain to one visitor per resident into our care home (for compassionate or essential visits only).  These visits must be pre-booked.

We thank you for your ongoing hard work in caring for our residents.

12 May 2022

Since our last update, we have had an additional two residents at Whiddon Wee Waa test positive to COVID-19. We do also have residents currently isolating as a result of being a close contact, and families have been notified of this. In light of the situation, we have been able to identify the source of transmission and are confident with our robust systems and quick processes implemented early on, we have been able to reduce the spread within our care home.

We are currently conducting additional COVID testing and are working very close with the Public Health Unit to manage the situation.

Our employees will continue wearing full PPE and visitations will remain to one visitor per resident into our care home (for compassionate or essential visits only).  These visits must be pre-booked.

When visiting please ensure that you:

• wear an N95 mask and face shield at all times, which will be supplied to you. In some areas, you may be required to wear full PPE
• stay vigilant and practice social distancing and good hand hygiene
• do not meet in any common areas
• refrain from visiting if you have COVID-19 symptoms or are awaiting a COVID-19 test result
• do not visit if you have been overseas in the previous 14 days, unless you are:
  – fully vaccinated, it has been at least 7 days after arrival and you have received a negative rapid antigen test 6 days or later after arriving in NSW.

We thank you for your ongoing understanding, and will provide you with a further update once we know more.

12 May 2022

We wanted to provide you an update on Whiddon Easton Park. Since our update last week, we have had a further two residents test positive for Covid-19. Please be reassured that if your loved one tests positive we will contact you directly.

Whilst Covid-19 remains a focus for us, we are also preparing ourselves and our residents for Flu season. Covid vaccinations at our care homes are high, and we have been working with our local doctors to complete Influenza vaccinations for both residents and staff.  As we have done in the past, we will continue to work closely with our local Public Health Unit to manage any respiratory illnesses throughout the Flu season.

As a reminder, visitation must be booked in advance.

When visiting please ensure that you:

• wear an N95 mask and face shield at all times, which will be supplied to you. In some areas, you may be required to wear full PPE
• pre-book your visit
• stay vigilant and practice social distancing and good hand hygiene
• do not meet in any common areas
• refrain from visiting if you have COVID-19 symptoms or are awaiting a COVID-19 test result
• do not visit if you have been overseas in the previous 14 days, unless you are:
  – fully vaccinated, it has been at least 7 days after arrival and you have received a negative rapid antigen test 6 days or later after arriving in NSW.

We would also like to advise you that there has been a change in Regional Managers for Whiddon Easton Park.  Sharon Fletcher will be moving to a different position at Whiddon and will be replaced by Sally Renshaw. Sally is an experienced Manager who has recently returned to Whiddon where she will continue to support the Director of Care Services at Easton Park. Sally can be contacted through the Customer Liaison Team on 1300 738 388.

11 May 2022

Since our last update, we have had an additional employee and 1x resident at Whiddon Wee Waa test positive to COVID-19. We do also have residents currently isolating as a result of being a close contact, and families have been notified of this.

We are currently working with the Public Health Unit and are putting in necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our residents and staff, including daily Rapid Antigen Tests and PPE.

For now, we have restricted visitations to allow one visitor per resident into our care home (for compassionate or essential visits only). These visits must be pre-booked.

All visitors are required to undertake rapid antigen testing as a condition of entry to Whiddon Wee Waa and will be asked to wear an N95 mask and face shield, which will be provided upon entry to the home. Please refrain from visiting if you are unwell and do not meet in common areas.

We wil provide a further update once we receive results of PCR tests that have been conducted.

We thank you for your ongoing understanding, and will provide you with a further update once we know more.

11 May 2022

Flu season is just around the corner. Getting vaccinated against influenza is the best way of protecting you, your loved ones and others from the flu. This year it is even more important. We are all more vulnerable to influenza due to lower recent exposure to the virus and lower uptake of influenza vaccines. With international borders reopening, it’s likely we will see more influenza in 2022.

We wanted to let you know that we are running our Resident Influenza Vaccination Clinic for 2022 here at Whiddon Kyogle on Thursday 19 May. We will also be running the fourth COVID Booster clinic at the same time.

If you would like to discuss this further or gain additional information, please feel free to contact me directly at the care home.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support to help us keep our wonderful residents safe through these ever changing times.

Kind regards,

Kearra Lord
Director of Care Services

11 May 2022

In pleasing news, we are now able to welcome back all visitors to Whiddon Maclean. This is on advice from the Public Health Unit, as we have not had any further residents test positive to COVID-19. This means that visitors are now permitted in our care home.

We thank you for your patience and understanding, as we know it has been a challenging time.

Please be reminded that visits must be pre-booked and we ask that you follow our guidelines when visiting, which includes wearing PPE when required and other important precautionary measures to help keep everyone in our family safe.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

10 May 2022

Please note that Quality Assessors from the Australian Government Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission are onsite at Whiddon Wingham from today until Thursday.

If you would like to speak with the assessors that are onsite to provide any feedback on the quality of your loved one’s care, you can make a booking to do so by calling our care home on (02) 5594 3200.

Alternatively, you can contact the Australian Government Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission direct on 1800 951 822 and select option 2 when prompted. You can also provide feedback via an online survey at https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/consumer-feedback (to open the survey, use the code 0186).

For more information visit agedcarequality.gov.au