There have been over 9,718 cases reported across the aged care sector and 533 deaths reported since January 2022. Aged care service providers like Fronditha Care have been a critical frontline in the fight against COVID-19.
Fronditha has a total of 162 residents and 135 staff who tested positive since the start of the year and sadly, 21 residents, all with underlying health issues, passed away.
By late December 2021, with infections widespread in most parts of the broader community and with staff and visitors regularly exposed to COVID-19 in their daily lives, it became clear that aged care providers managing residential services were limited in what they could do to keep vulnerable people safe – particularly as infection control measures needed to be balanced with continuity of essential services, and the effect of isolation on the wellbeing of people in care.
At present, Fronditha Care Templestowe facility is managing an outbreak that was identified through proactive asymptomatic testing of residents and staff. There are currently 12 residents and 11 staff that are considered active cases. All residents are reported stable.
Commenting on their experiences Fronditha Care CEO, Faye Spiteri (Tsolakis) OAM stated: “Fronditha Care, doing everything it could to keep community services clients, residents and all staff safe, managed to keep the virus at bay for the best part of 2021. It was well publicised before the decision was made by governments to ‘open up’ that the aged care sector was highly vulnerable. Ongoing high transmission across the community, with almost 250,000 active cases across Victoria in January, demonstrated to us the rapid transmissibility of the current outbreak and how difficult it would be to manage. As it transpired, no aged-care provider has been left untouched in the past two months with cases and challenges of keeping vulnerable people safe across the sector well documented”.
Fronditha Care implemented its COVID Safe Plans with key infection control measure for its facilities including voluntary lockdowns; staff and visitors being RAT tested prior to entering a facility and observing Infection Control Protocols, including wearing full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and N-95 masks; regular proactive asymptomatic testing and sourcing its own supplies of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) to supplement the Government supply; organising booster clinics at all facilities; purchasing its own air purifiers to mitigate transmission of the airborne virus; and working closely and effectively with the Public Health Unit, DHHS and Infection Control Units.
Further, Fronditha Care has measures to maintain services and address isolation, include a risk-based approach to furloughing of staff in accordance with revised national guidelines, minimising restrictions on movement, (only limiting residents to their rooms as a last resort during an active outbreak in consultation with Public Health Units), regular welfare checks throughout the day and facilitation of remote and physical visitation.
“Aged care organisations across Australia are under enormous pressure to keep all clients, residents and staff safe and healthy while ensuring their mental health and wellbeing through connection and engagement. Fronditha Care has increased the number of Partner-in-Care agreements to allow family visitations during mandated lockdown and added its voice to peak bodies ACSA and LASA who are lobbying to secure more Government support. The recent Government announcements regarding staffing in aged care, although welcomed, are very far from addressing the ever-increasing needs in aged care across community and residential services, especially in times of crisis,” said Faye Spiteri (Tsolakis) OAM.
“We are grateful for the support, understanding and commitment of residents and their families and our staff. We – the Fronditha Care residents and their families, Board, Executive, Residential Services, and their teams are closely and respectively working through this together. Communication has been key, and we have a number of strategies in place to ensure transparency and make changes to our approach and practices in real time including hosting regular online family briefings,” Spiteri said.
Asked about the organisation’s preparedness for the future Faye Spiteri (Tsolakis) OAM stated “The community needs to appreciate that COVID-19 is here to stay with another outbreak predicted for June 2022, as well as a flu season this winter. Fronditha Care is focused on consistently adapting its operational approach,`infection control and COVID Management Plans, ensuring we have mechanisms and resourcing in place to live with “COVID normal” and continue, in the face of extraordinary challenges, to keep all those in our care and our staff as safe as possible.”
