Date: 15 May 2017

Aged care providers Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution (RFBI), Opal Aged Care and The Whiddon Group have partnered to improve emergency preparedness and evacuation procedures for aged care residents and staff across the three organisations.

The three organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) covering emergency evacuation and accommodation in November 2016. The MOU ensures that, in the event of an incident that requires evacuation, the three organisations will partner to utilise any of their facilities and resources where possible to accommodate residents and staff.

Emergency evacuations of aged care services are an ongoing challenge for providers, particularly those in regional, rural and remote areas with limited alternative and suitable infrastructure, and those in fire and flood prone areas.

With more than 70 services across NSW between these three organisations, and locations ranging from the remote Far West and the Riverina, to the Hunter, New England and Far North Coast regions, the MOU ensures the providers are presented with suitable options to maintain quality of care for their residents in the event of an evacuation.

“The agreement between the three parties ensures that should the need to evacuate arise, our residents and staff have options on where they can move to. The vulnerable nature of the people we care for means that it is always preferable to evacuate to another residential aged care service, where there are suitable facilities available, ” said Whiddon CEO Chris Mamarelis.

“There are numerous challenges experienced by rural and remote providers during incidents requiring evacuations; distance from major towns and from other aged care services and suitable evacuation locations are certainly part of this.”

“For our three organisations, this adds another valuable layer of contingency to our risk management strategies. Our hope is that this partnership provides options and support should it be required, putting the needs of our residents first, and promotes further collaboration in our industry,” he continued.

 

 

Media enquiries: Amiria MacKinnon, Communications Manager, 0423 974 194