Carol Altmann – The Terrier

On Monday afternoon just gone, the hostel area of Lyndoch Living was allegedly operating with only one staff member to cover two wings, and another to cover one wing.

That is two people for around 41 residents, spread across three wings, from 2pm to 10pm.

These staff, according to my sources, were personal care workers.

There was, I am told, no Registered Nurse or Enrolled Nurse on duty for the afternoon shift because there was nobody available.

There was also nobody on duty in one wing of the hostel to serve dinner later in the day.

Residents in that wing were told that if they wanted dinner, they needed to go to another wing in the hostel which involved walking a considerable distance and down a ramp.

As a result, some residents did not have dinner.

In light of these allegations, I emailed Lyndoch Living for comment yesterday before writing this post tonight and asked this specific question:

“Are you able to comment on these allegations and, if correct, what is the cause of the staff shortages in the hostel area and what is being done to address them as Lyndoch moves toward reaccreditation in August?”

There was no reply.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Tonight we are launching a Go Fund Me campaign on behalf of the Warrnambool community as the first step toward taking Lyndoch Living to court.

It’s time for action.

A group of community philanthropists has been working on this legal challenge for some time and have now reached the point where a barrister can be engaged.

The crowdfunding will pay for expert advice from a barrister who is the Australian specialist in this field of the law.

The advice will consider the best way to frame a case against the Lyndoch board – both collectively and as individual board members – on whether they have failed in their duty to uphold the original spirit and purpose of Lyndoch.

This failure includes the rejection of all general membership applications by the community these past two years.

It’s time for action.

This is the first step in a legal process that will probably take place in either the County Court or the Supreme Court.

We have been ignored, silenced, pressed down, rejected and dismissed by the board for more than two years.

Enough.

We are now moving, as a community, to hold the Lyndoch board to account.

To take the first step, we need to raise $5000.

This is the equivalent of 100 people donating $50, or 1000 people donating $5 each.

Chip in what you can afford.

It reminds me of the days of buying a raffle ticket to support Lyndoch – except this time the prize is not a car, but Lyndoch itself: keeping Lyndoch a community asset, fully accountable to the community it serves.

A professional legal opinion from the best in the field is the first step.

We have already explored the next step: receiving pro bono (free of charge) support to run the case in court. We have received some very positive responses.

Now is the time for action.

Let’s go.

Click here to chip in – you can be anonymous: [https://gofund.me/170a6e8b]

[If you prefer an offline method to chip in, please contact me via DM or at Terriercarol@protonmail.com]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch Living will this year change how it selects its board, but there is still no sign – yet – of allowing “ordinary” members anywhere near the action.

In fact, my sense is that Lyndoch is driving methodically toward becoming a fully corporatised, tightly controlled company and ditching any real input or scrutiny from the wider community about its operations.

I say this because while Lyndoch is changing how it chooses its board members – more about that in a second – it’s in absolutely no rush to let every day people become “ordinary” members.

These pesky “ordinary” members are the ones who can keep an eye on the direction, priorities and performance of Lyndoch, ask questions and, if enough members agree, call meetings and vote on action.

They can be a powerful local voice.

They also reflect the people, or their offspring, who supported Lyndoch for decades – we must never forget that harnessing “people power” is how Lyndoch started and how it has survived for more than 60 years.

Right now, however, Lyndoch has no “ordinary” members. Zilch.

As we know, more than 115 people applied to the board last year to become “ordinary” members and nobody made it through.

It turns out, however, the Lyndoch board has been looking at itself and, a year ago, hired a local consultant – Robert Lane from SED Consulting – to suggest ways it could do things differently.

Mr Lane popped up as a surprise guest at the Lyndoch Living AGM last month, and I felt a surge of hope that maybe the breakthrough we have been waiting for, where membership would become open and accessible, had finally come.

But after meeting with Mr Lane last week to learn more, that hope is on hold because encouraging “ordinary” members was not a part of his brief.

Mr Lane was tasked with other priorities, including setting up a new board selection process that will work something like this:

– All board vacancies will be advertised;

– Nominees will go to a new committee, chaired by Mr Lane and including two board members Kane Grant and Lorraine Mielnik;

– The committee will assess these people against a range of criteria and settle on those it thinks would be best;

– The committee’s decision is then assessed by another, as-yet-unnamed, independent person.

– The final, preferred nominees will then go to a vote at the AGM.

On paper, this looks better than the closed shop of recent years, but is it? I see a gaping hole – who gets to vote for board members at the AGM?

There ARE NO general members of Lyndoch so, once again, the board votes for itself.

Around we go.

I asked Mr Lane: aren’t we right back to square one, with only seven people – the seven board members – having full control and being answerable only to themselves?

We were.

This is not Mr Lane’s fault or responsibility, as he is only tackling what he has been hired to do.

“I am trying to manage an interim process,” Mr Lane said, “(and) in the absence of members outside of the board, this is the process that will take place.”

Mr Lane agreed the situation was “not ideal”,  but stressed that he hadn’t “accepted this role to not have a positive influence”.

Well I really hope that Mr Lane’s influence can extend a lot further, because the biggest issue with the board right now is not who sits on it, but its refusal to talk to the people.

It has failed – repeatedly – to tell the community what is going on, or to answer questions.

This is why most people have no clue about the scope of the $100m masterplan, or why Lyndoch became a “Company Limited by Guarantee”, or how it will pay for its $22m medical complex, or why so many staff have left, or why it’s failing aged care standards, or why it even wants to run a medical clinic…because the board has explained none of it.

The board can change this, but does it want to?

In fact I wonder if the next step is for Lyndoch board memberships to no longer be voluntary, but paid positions to progress Lyndoch Living Ltd, rather than – in theory at least – to represent the community?

These next 12 months are critical: they will determine whether Lyndoch is fully answerable to the community, or whether – having become a Company Limited by Guarantee – that side of Lyndoch is now pure nostalgia.

Thanks for reading The Terrier. If you would like to say thanks and buy Jock a juicy bone, you can find the Tip Jar here.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch Living can be a mind-bender, it really can.

Take, for example, the fact that Lyndoch will appeal the refusal of a permit for its big corporate sign.

Lyndoch has decided to challenge the decision by the Warrnambool City Council through VCAT.

This, you may recall, is the corporate sign that was installed just over a year ago by Lyndoch without a permit because it didn’t apply for one.

It then applied retrospectively for a permit in a classic “do it, then ask later” manoeuvre, but it was rejected by the WCC because the sign is too large under planning laws.

End of story? No way!

So now more aged care funds will be spent by Lyndoch on nurses, oops, lawyers to appeal a sign that was erected illegally in the first place.

And here is the mind-bending, “this-could-only-happen-in-Warrnambool” part:

Lyndoch is fighting a decision made by the staff of one of the board members of Lyndoch.

Andrew Paton, as we know, is a board member of Lyndoch and the Director of City Growth at WCC.

Mr Paton’s staff, who I assume he trusts to know the law, made the decision to reject this sign.

But Lyndoch is now spending aged care funds to fight that decision.

And the council – which employs Mr Paton – will spend ratepayers’ funds, in a roundabout way, defending that decision.

My head hurts.

My head also hurts, and perhaps yours does too, when I see the barrage of public relations pouring out of Lyndoch on its Facebook page at the moment without so much as a whiff of an update on how it’s dealing with its multiple challenges.

Last Tuesday, for example, there was a pile of happy snaps from the “grand opening” of new works at May Noonan Hostel in Terang.

It was all speeches and smiles, but not a word about May Noonan in July failing seven out of the eight national aged care standards – or almost half of the 42 benchmarks –  and the 19 specific areas it must address to avoid sanctions.

There was not a peep of an update on how the squad that has finally been assembled to help with May Noonan is actually performing.

Nothing to see here folks! Pass the microphone!

And on this same day that the Lyndoch CEO and Chair were celebrating the new furnishings at May Noonan, the Lyndoch nursing home (Lake Lodge and Audrey Prider Centre), had one of its worst days for staff shortages – about half of the staff required.

It was, I am reliably informed, a nightmare.

Some Registered Nurses at Lyndoch are now working nine to 12 hour shifts to help try and cover the shortages.

This, as we know, is a direct consequence of a culture that has taken root and eroded Lyndoch and left so many good staff on the scrapheap, wondering what they did wrong and why – after decades of service – they are being made to carry the can.

We know it, we read it, we hear it and we feel sick about it and I feel even sicker when I see the pap now streaming out of Lyndoch which is designed to cheer everyone up – as all good propaganda is designed to do –  but doesn’t fix anything.

What will fix it and turn Lyndoch around are serious interrogations by the authorities with the power to act, such as WorkSafe, which as of last week is now involved because of serious concerns around staff fatigue.

The Annual General Meeting this Tuesday is an opportunity for some truths.

We have lodged our 31 questions; let’s see if we get even a single answer.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

UPDATE:  Another one down. The third and final clinical leader in the Lyndoch Living hostel area is now on sick leave.

This means there are no clinical leaders left in an area of up to 128 residents.

All three leaders have gone on sick or stress leave in the past eight weeks and between them have 30 years, another 30 years and more than 10 years experience.

They are unlikely to return under the current management.

This part of Lyndoch, which includes the new $13m Swinton Wing and Riverside, now has nobody formally in the role of clinical leader – skilled nurses who work closely with the Nurse Unit Managers on administering medication, and implementing and monitoring the care plan for each resident.

They also work closely with the Personal Care Workers.

Now they are all gone. 

The two experienced Nurse Unit Managers for this area are also on extended leave.

In the space of two months, this area has lost all of its leaders and mentors who have built strong relationships with each other and with the residents, who miss them and hope they are okay.

I know this, because people contact me.

So far, Lyndoch’s answer to this growing crisis is to expect other nursing staff to fill the gaps: shuffle the chairs, move the chess pieces, switch and swap, and plug holes wherever they appear.

Lyndoch called a pep-talk meeting of all the PCWs on Monday which, from all accounts, only underscored how blinded senior management are to the looming crisis.

Some staff walked out not long after the pep talk started and well before it ended: they had heard enough.

They were hoping for a plan, some reassurance that more hands on deck were coming, but they were apparently given no such comfort.

Instead, according to my ever-trusty sources, they were told if Lyndoch was to have an accreditation assessment right now, it would fail.

As we know, Lyndoch is already under scrutiny from the national aged care watchdog and failed three out of four key standards, which must be addressed if it is to be re-accredited in February next year.

Re-accrediation was due in August this year, but due to Covid was delayed by six months – the Lyndoch hierarchy must be breathing a huge sigh of relief for the extension.

And yet none of this, not a word, merits any public explanation from Lyndoch Living as to what is going on, why and what is being done to address it.

The staff exodus and the impact does not warrant a peep from the Lyndoch board.

It has also not stirred any interrogation by local mainstream media: not a single question has been asked or appeared in any stories that I have seen.

And so it just rolls on and I find that shocking.

One of the few to speak up is the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation which last week sent a string of questions to the Lyndoch Acting Director of Nursing that it has asked to be answered by tomorrow.

It is a glimmer of hope for at least some answers and accountability.

We shall see.