Carol Altmann – The Terrier
There is still no sign of the Lyndoch Living AGM, but the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is now demanding answers around staff shortages, poor staff morale, compromised resident care, a lack of leadership and the increased risk of a clinical incident for which staff could be blamed.
In other words, the union has identified all of the critical issues that Lyndoch nursing and care staff have been trying to raise these past 18 months and which many Lyndoch staff believe are now at breaking point.
This is not scare mongering.
This is a warning to Lyndoch and its board that this is no longer a situation that can be ignored or fixed by shuffling the deck chairs.
The plain fact is you cannot lose at least a dozen of your most experienced clinical and nursing staff in a couple of months and not expect an impact.
My long held fear is that it will take a “clinical incident” to bring this to a head – it will take someone’s loved one to be the victim of what is unfolding before there is an intervention. This is my genuine fear and it is one that is now shared by the ANMF.
In a two-page letter sent last Friday, the union has given Lyndoch until the end of this week to respond to its questions, which are outlined in the attached photos, including resident numbers, staff numbers, rosters and what is being done to address the chronic shortfalls.
I am so relieved to see the nurses union now stepping in, together with work behind the scenes from MPs, residents’ families, hundreds of community members, Lyndoch staff, and others who are no longer prepared to let this go on, unchallenged.
The board and the Lyndoch executive may choose silence or spin, but the community is not going to stand for it.
As a wise person reminded me the other day, the standard you walk past is the standard you accept. When it comes to our elderly and vulnerable residents, none of us – surely – can walk past. On we press.
I am concerned as my parents age into their 90’s. The whole aged care facade of this government is a joke! My parents visit friends and relay to me to assist them dying rather than be subject to inadequate car based on how they see their friends unbathed, poorly dresses, ungroomed, nor cared for at a personal level. I see the fear in the eyes of the vulnerable and weep to think its allowed
Too many connections to WCC. Is it coincidental lyndoch is now a basket case? No! Definitely not. The cultural matters at WCC have not been solved either. Unfortunately it will only take industrial action to solve lyndoch’s issues. Given so many resignations. I would also think lyndoch is in now in breach of care standards.