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.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Time to get busy: the Lyndoch Living AGM is coming up in October, so next Sunday I am running a “sign up” for Lyndoch membership day.

The plan is to collect as many applications as we can – 20? 50? – to try and put the “c” (community) back into the heart of Lyndoch.

As I have written before, Lyndoch has no general members who come from outside Lyndoch.

All of the general members – around six or seven – are employees of Lyndoch.

In the past 18 months, a string of applications from the public have been flatly rejected by the board with no reasons given.

Who would have thought our aged care home would become such an exclusive club?

And speaking of the board, Lyndoch has had two board vacancies since May, but there has been no call for nominations – the spots remain empty. (The nine board members are separate to general members.)

It’s all very strange and completely at odds with what has been the community spirit of Lyndoch for the past 60 years.

This gatekeeping also removes a grassroots layer of scrutiny because members can – if they want to – do a number of things, including ask questions at the AGM, call general meetings, pass resolutions, run for the board, and vote on board nominations.

With the AGM now on the horizon, I believe the time is right to “test the gate” and see if it remains firmly locked to the uninvited.

Prof James Dunbar and Jim Burke, from the “Keep Lyndoch living” group, will be helping me out next Sunday.

If you would like to be a part of this push, pop down to the Warrnambool Civic Green between 11am and 3pm and look for the not-very-fancy terrier table.

I will have membership forms ready to go, it’s free to apply, and I will deliver them all to Lyndoch once we are done.

We will then wait and see how many people, if any, make it through.

[Sunday August 8, Civic Green, 11am to 3pm. Covid-safe protocols will apply. Please BYO pen and wear a mask. If you would like to bring your membership form already filled out, you can download it here].

Exclusive

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I am technically taking a break, but some stories can’t wait until the new year, and this is one of them – a confirmed outbreak of scabies in the Audrey Prider Centre at Lyndoch Living.

What a Christmas gift to residents in APC, which is a high-care dementia wing and home to some of the most vulnerable people in Lyndoch aged care.

The scabies diagnosis confirms what Lyndoch nursing staff and some residents’ families have long suspected, with a nasty rash coming and going through APC for months and months.

Lyndoch management finally brought in skin specialist Dr Werner Sinclair on 5 December and he has since issued a formal diagnosis of scabies for at least two residents.

I understand that up to eight residents are now potentially affected by what is a highly contagious infestation.

But this diagnosis by Dr Sinclair didn’t just happen.

It followed an intervention by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation on behalf of nursing staff who were sick to death of being fobbed off.

As reported by The Terrier, the union wrote a letter to Lyndoch on 27 November demanding answers on whether there had been any suspected or confirmed cases of scabies in APC in the past six months and, if so, what had been done about it.

Some of its members, the union wrote, had been “actively treated” for suspected scabies, as had some residents, but nursing staff were “of the view” that they were not to talk about it with residents’ families, or each other.

The ANMF was also told by its members that “minimal infection control measures” had been put in place.

If what the union says is correct, this is pure damage control, if not a cover up.

One thing is certain, and that is that it took the union to put a rocket up the backside of Lyndoch about this outbreak and to bring in the experts.

This begs the bigger and more important question of why?

Why must it take the intervention of a union to see the immediate welfare of residents and staff in Audrey Prider Centre shoot to the very top of Lyndoch’s priorities?

And if the union had not intervened, would the outbreak have ever been formally diagnosed and responded to? Or would the itch just go on?

The families of some of those infected are absolutely furious by what has unfolded.

Their stories are ones of confusion and misinformation.

One woman said she learned of her mother’s scabies via a phone call from Lyndoch last Monday – December 14 – by which time her family had been to visit her mother several times and been potentially exposed.

In another case, a family member of an APC resident who is being treated for scabies, has scabies.

While scabies is not deadly, it causes an intense, almost maddening itch from tiny, burrowing mites that get under the victim’s skin.

Treatment is via either oral medication or an external lotion applied all over the body.

According to a document sent to me, Lyndoch is using the services of an infection control consultant – Victorian Infection Prevention Services – to help manage its outbreak.

Bulk supplies of one lotion, Benzemul, have been brought it to protect APC nursing staff, who were urged to start applying the lotion to themselves as of last Monday, 14 December.

It’s understood residents are also being treated with a lotion.

To contain the outbreak, APC staff must also wear long sleeves and gloves when dealing with infected residents, wash their hands after every resident contact, and dispose of all used linen immediately into a laundry skip rather than carrying it.

Scabies, to put it bluntly, is a bastard of a thing to catch, and to contain.

And all of this comes to light as the Lyndoch Living executive gathers tonight for its Christmas break up. I hope they are having a good time, because those with the scabies are certainly not.

I emailed the Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power, chair Susan Cassidy, and the Lyndoch media unit at 11am this morning for comment. I will update this piece if any comment is provided.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Leadership:

Wow, what is this that I see? There are some amazing things happening in Warrnambool in these c/v times.

I see local businesses doing their best to hold on and adapt as best they can, like Materia Bros (big shout out to that wonderful family) who are doing home deliveries of fresh produce – check out their FB page for details.

We are seeing jams and chutneys arriving on doorsteps; messages for health care workers written in chalk on footpaths; grocery runs for elderly people; hand-written cards and notes appearing in letterboxes…all prepared with sanitised hands, of course.

I love seeing this generosity of spirit happening in our city – we all do.

But what I would like to see more of is bold leadership from the top.

I want to see more of our Mayor and CEO, with at least daily updates on what the WCC is working on, and what real, practical steps are being taken to prepare for the next 12 months.

This is how long the economic fallout from this virus will last, if not longer.

I want to see updates on support packages being prepared for local businesses, solo operators, ratepayers and residents, not a ‘fly through’ of the Reid Oval upgrade, which was added to the WCC website today.

I hate to say it, but even in a sport lovin’ city like ours, sport upgrades have to come second right now.

The millions of dollars that were to be spent on Reid Oval would make a huge difference to those who will be doing it really tough in the next year or two.

There is no sugar coating it: the fallout from this virus is going to hit Warrnambool hard and we need a plan and we need it now.

I don’t envy the CEO or our Mayor in these times, but this is what leadership is all about and it’s what their jobs are all about. Leadership is easy when the going is easy, but true leadership shines when times are tough.

We are in those times.

A strong, bold, council vision delivered straight to our door: I would like to see that.