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

I know we are all still digesting the distressing fact that Lyndoch Living has slipped further in its duty of care to look after the elderly, but this is important:

Before breaking that story yesterday, I had planned to post these roster shortages for the Audrey Prider Centre and Lake Lodge – the two, high-care areas that make up what is called the “nursing home”.

These are the very same areas that were the focus of yesterday’s bombshell that Lyndoch had failed four more national standards of care.

These are the areas that were found by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to be under stress from severe staff shortages.

That was based on the commission looking closely at Lyndoch in September.

September.

Yet here we are, and nothing has changed. These are the shift shortages for the past couple of days: it is dire.

So if things were grim in September, I can only imagine what the commission would report if it turned up now.

And I hope they do turn up, unannounced, very soon because this cannot wait until the reaccreditation at the end of February. The commission has the power to do this. It can apply sanctions at any time.

Our local Federal member Dan Tehan gave a statement to the local paper today which says the commission is still deciding what to do in response to the latest failings.

I hope they intervene, because these rosters show that we cannot hope that things will miraculously improve. They won’t.

A stream of experienced staff have gone on sick leave, stress leave or resigned since the commission’s last audit in September. They want to work at Lyndoch, but they can no longer tolerate what is going on.

This has nothing to do with national staff shortages, Covid, or the Royal Commission. It has everything to do with the Lyndoch culture and priorities.

We know it, the staff know it, and surely the commission is starting to catch on.

Yet while the walls crumble around them, Lyndoch once again shows no contrition or remorse for these failings. It once again tells the paper that it has “an action plan”. It said the same thing earlier this year.

Clearly, that action plan is not working and Lyndoch is going backwards, from failing one standard, to now failing four.

My hope is the commission does not wait for it to deteriorate even further before taking action, because at the centre of all this are real people, elderly, vulnerable people, beautiful people from our local community, who are not able to smile and laugh for the Lyndoch Facebook page, but who are instead in need of our help. We are there for them, and those who care for them.

Thankyou to every single one of you who is prepared to stay the course and fight this fight.

Exclusive

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

The Lyndoch Living nursing home has again failed a string of care standards set down by the national aged care watchdog.

In another damning report released online today by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), the nursing home has again failed to meet key measures in personal care and clinical care, staffing, and also governance. [Download the report here.]

The nursing home area is made up the two high-care units: the Audrey Prider Centre, for dementia residents, and Lake Lodge.

An ACQSC audit from September 8 to 15 revealed poor wound management, poor pain management, a lack of monitoring and documentation after resident falls, and inadequate staffing, with unfilled rosters, and remaining staff being unable to cope with the workload.

The extent and impact of understaffing at Lyndoch is graphically highlighted by the report.

It found the nursing home is unable to demonstrate that its current mix and qualifications of its workforce could deliver and manage safe and quality care and services.

“Rosters evidence that not all care shifts are filled when staff are deployed elsewhere within the service or when staff call in sick,” the report says.

“Personal care staff interviewed advised they do not always complete all tasks allocated to them.”

The report says Lyndoch management described how they are in the process of recruiting more nursing and care staff to cover current vacancies, but this has done little to address the concerns of residents and their families.

“Whilst the service was able to evidence improvements, four out of five consumer representatives expressed ongoing dissatisfaction with staffing levels within the service,” the report says.

Short staffing was also raised in regard to poor wound and pain management.

“(Lyndoch) did not demonstrate best practice clinical care in relation to wound and pain management,” the report says.

In particular, the commission found:

– Wound management plans did not always reflect wound reviews including dressing changes, photography and measurements.

– Inconsistent wound photographs and wound measurements are taken and recorded.

– The healing progress of each wound is not clearly demonstrated.

Nursing staff told the commission that staff shortages limited the ability of staff to attend to wounds as required, and to reposition residents to reduce pressure.

“Clinical staff described how wound care is impacted by staff shortages including delayed dressing and repositioning of consumers,” the report says.

The report also outlines failings in monitoring residents who had suffered falls.

Unwitnessed falls were not always documented in reports and a sample found that three out of four residents who had fallen were not effectively monitored afterward, including neurological observations and pain monitoring.

Not surprisingly, the nursing home also failed on risk management.

“The service did not demonstrate systems are in place to prevent harm from high impact or high prevalence risks such as falls,” the report says.

Despite hiring an adviser to help with its governance activities, the service “has not demonstrated current systems and processes are adequate in identifying and managing high impact or high prevalence risks”.

It is the second time this year that the Lyndoch nursing home has failed a ACQSC audit.

In July this year May Noonan Hostel in Terang, bought by Lyndoch in 2018, also failed seven out of the eight aged care standards.

The ACQSC is the peak federal body for assessing and accrediting aged care homes.

I will seek comment from Lyndoch this afternoon and update this story if or when a comment is received. In the meantime, I stand with the care staff and the poor residents.

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.