Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A tip-off has landed in the terrier kennel that Lyndoch Living is set to further expand its executive by hiring former Warrnambool City Council Acting CEO Vikki King.

Until recently this tip-off was a persistent rumour, but I now have every reason to believe it’s on the cards, although it’s impossible to provide rock solid confirmation at the moment, because Lyndoch doesn’t talk to me.

(An emailed question to the Lyndoch media unit has gone unanswered.)

But Ms King, according to my sources, is set to be employed to a new, senior executive position within Lyndoch Living.

The number of executives and administration officers within Lyndoch Living has ballooned in the past five years, although the most recent figures are hard to come by.

The last time Lyndoch provided a breakdown was in 2018 when there was 60 admin staff, up from 37 in 2016.

In 2020, administration cost Lyndoch $3.07 million for the year.

If my sources are right, Ms King will soon be added to this payroll.

As we know, Ms King was director of Community Services at the Warrnambool City Council for six years, and Acting CEO for almost 12 months after the illegal sacking of CEO Peter Schneider.

Ms King resigned from the council on June 16 – just five days after Mr Schneider won his Supreme Court case and was reinstated.

Little has been heard about Ms King since, until this “rumour-turned-tip-off” bubbled to the surface.

One thing is certain, Ms King has already developed firm links to Lyndoch Living via her work at the council and separately.

As the string map published here a year ago shows (thanks to a reader), Ms King is deputy chair of the South West Primary Care Partnership that is chaired by the Lyndoch CEO.

Both Ms King and the Lyndoch CEO were also involved with Beyond the Bell/South-West Local Learning and Employment Network.

Ms King’s role as council’s director of Community Services naturally also included links with Lyndoch, especially via the council’s 2040 plan, of which Lyndoch is a partner.

And as it happens, one of the last public statements made by Ms King before her resignation from council was to announce that Lyndoch was taking over the Regional Assessment Service for elderly people wishing to stay in their homes.

We shall see in due course if my tip-off is right, or if I am barking up the wrong tree.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Exclusive

Lyndoch Living has failed seven of the eight quality standards for its May Noonan Centre in Terang, after an audit by the national aged care watchdog.

The audit by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission in April found Lyndoch was non-compliant in almost half of the 42 benchmarks that make up the eight national standards.

In one standard – ongoing assessment and planning with consumers – the May Noonan aged care home failed on all five out of five benchmarks.

The damning report – released online this week – found a string of shortfalls, including that “staff do not understand what constitutes chemical restraint and actions do not minimise the use of chemical restraint”.

It also found the service “does not effectively manage high impact high prevalence risks including in relation to falls, medication, behavioural and weight management and urinary catheters.”

The audit also found staff do not act in a timely manner to deterioration or changes to a resident’s health.

In one example, a resident had been feeling unwell for several weeks and, despite documentation recording this and the resident’s representative telling staff repeatedly, no action was taken until the resident became feverish.

Only then was the resident assessed by an external registered nurse and found to have urinary retention.

The assessment team also found some information available was out of date and/or incomplete;

instances of directives made by health professionals and not acted upon by staff;

handover information does not include risks;

charting, assessments and care plans were not consistent or current for all residents sampled.

Staff were friendly, gentle and caring, but – once again – the report reveals that there is simply not enough of them.

Staff shortages and qualifications were captured in this pithy summary: “the number and mix of members of the workforce does not enable the delivery and management of safe and quality care and services.”

And this: “The Assessment Team found the service does not demonstrate staff have the knowledge to effectively perform their roles”.

This report follows a similarly damning audit of the Lyndoch nursing home in Warrnambool, reported here in June, which found Lyndoch was non-compliant in three out of four key measures for resident care and staffing.

[From my search of the commission website, Lyndoch is the only aged care home in Warrnambool and Port Fairy to have been found non-compliant in multiple areas.]

Lyndoch Living bought the 40-bed May Noonan hostel in late 2018.

At that time, it had passed accreditation by meeting all 44 of the 44 requirements and was due for reaccreditation in July 2021.

This has now been deferred by the commission until next January due to Covid-19.

This latest report says Lyndoch appointed a new manager to May Noonan in March and that many of the issues were now being addressed, including an audit of all residents, however the assessor determined that because this remedial action was “still in progress”, the home remained in breach.

[You can download the full report here]