Amid scabies and funding fears, Lyndoch goes racing
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Yes, Lyndoch Living has a corporate tent at the May Races this year.
Yes, there is a gorgeous marquee decked out with stunning plants and there are goodie bags promoting the Waterfront Living apartments, because, well, how else could you possibly spend aged care funds in the wake of a Royal Commission into Aged Care?
On something meaningful and lasting? Sadly, no.
And why not have a corporate tent for three days at the races when there was a confirmed scabies outbreak in Lyndoch less than a week ago?
Far away from that itchy mess, the only scratching to be seen in the corporate tent is that on the form guide.
And why not spend aged care funds setting up a corporate tent when Lyndoch has recorded a string of deficits these past five years?
The estimated cost of the tent and catering is $40,000 for three days, which is on top of the $200,000, three-year sponsorship of the Grand Annual Steeplechase.
And heck, why shouldn’t Lyndoch corporates and invited guests be able to let their hair down after the stress of hearing Lyndoch’s former acting Chief Financial Officer say he doesn’t support its proposed $22 million medical clinic and, as a private citizen, he fears for Lyndoch’s financial future.
Nobody has a problem with Lyndoch residents enjoying a day out in the bus, placing a few bets and having a glass of bubbles, before retiring home for a cup of tea.
But the community is not stupid: this whole race-week get up is not about the residents.
The residents are a shield for the blatant fact that Lyndoch is spending tens of thousands a year on the horse racing industry.
Drink up! Eat up! Go you good things!
Does any other aged care home in Australia do such a thing? I doubt it.
As a community, do we accept it?
Fresh outbreak of scabies at Lyndoch Living aged care
Lyndoch Living aged care in Warrnambool has recorded another outbreak of scabies. Image: Medico.com
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Lyndoch Living has another outbreak of scabies.
The fresh outbreak in the Garden View wing comes four months after confirmation of an outbreak in the Audrey Prider Centre.
That confirmation in December came after months of complaints from residents and Lyndoch staff about a nasty rash coming and going through APC.
I am unsure about the scale of this latest outbreak, but families of residents in Garden View have been notified and all residents in Garden View are now being treated.
Lyndoch Living was contacted for comment today, but has not responded.
The scabies outbreak comes amid questions over the priorities and direction of Lyndoch Living as it prepares to build a $22 million medical clinic on site to replace the current Warrnambool Medical Clinic in Liebig St.
It also comes amid questions as to why there has been a string of resignations from Lyndoch in recent weeks, including senior executive Dr Ed Rhodes on Monday, and four members of the finance team in the past month.
Inquiry into aged care a chance to break the fear and silence
Lyndoch Living CEO Doreen Power cheering on from the stands during the 2019 May Racing Carnival. Image: Lyndoch Living/ Racing Victoria.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
This week will be a reckoning for aged care across Australia and I can hope it blows the lid right off what is a national disgrace.
We only have to look at our own neck of the woods to see how little official outrage there is to what should be unacceptable.
It’s more than two months since The Terrier revealed an outbreak of scabies within Lyndoch Living, our much-loved, community-owned aged care home in Warrnambool.
When whistleblowers revealed scabies in a Whyalla nursing home last November, A Current Affair and a South Australian MP were on the doorstep demanding answers.
It’s also more than a year since I wrote about staff tearing up sheets and towels to use as facewashers, and more money being spent on consultants and lawyers than on food for residents.
More than a year has passed since I revealed a family member of a resident was sleeping on the floor next to her mother for seven days because her mother had had a series of falls and there was not enough staff to keep an eye on her.
At the same time, Lyndoch senior staff, right up to the CEO, and senior board members, were attending the May Races.
It’s well over a year since I first wrote about the steady stream of staff who were leaving Lyndoch, sometimes after decades of service, because of alleged bullying, being “targeted”, or given little option to resign and – if they are lucky – given a payout to sweeten the blow. I call it “keep quiet” money.
Is that sort of thing still happening? Yes.Yes, it is.
It’s eight months since we learned two architects from Melbourne were visiting Lyndoch Living despite the “ring of steel” Covid-19 lockdown in that city.
It’s 18 months since we learned that the community was no longer welcome to become members of Lyndoch: every single membership application from the general community has been rejected, including that of our now Mayor Vicki Jellie.
Board member positions are no longer advertised.
The annual general meeting is no longer advertised.
Has there been an outcry from the board at this lack of inclusion? No.
Regardless, we have still unpicked the fact that Lyndoch has recorded a series of deficits these past five years and will borrow money from residential bonds (as the current laws allow it to do), to fund its $100 million masterplan.
We also recently learned, thanks to two former Lyndoch workers who peeled back the lid, that Lyndoch was gobbling up to 44 per cent in management fees for home care packages.(Again, the laws currently allow these fees.)
And this still doesn’t touch on what I haven’t been able to publish, because Lyndoch is litigious and I have to pick my way through a minefield to report even this much.
Our local political leaders know about most – if not all – of the above. Some of them have even met personally with those directly affected.
And yet, perhaps despite the best of intentions, nothing has come of it.
That may change after this week.
This week will see the public release of the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care and the federal government’s initial responses.
The sad and infuriating story of what people are expected to “put up with” – as aged care residents, aged care staff, the residents families and the wider community – will be laid bare.
It will no doubt emphasise the need for better staffing ratios, better pay, better training and working conditions, better scrutiny of those in positions of responsibility, greater transparency around funding and fees, and why aged care residents should never been seen as “customers”.
But I also hope this inquiry exposes why so many people connected to aged care feel disempowered from speaking up and out about what they know, because they fear the repercussions.
I can tell you that fear and silence around Lyndoch Living is very real, even if not everyone is touched by it.
I know it, several GPs around Warrnambool know it, several lawyers around Warrnambool know it. Our local MPs know it. The families and friends of those directly affected know it.
The release of the Royal Commission findings is our chance as a whole community to speak up for those who can’t do so themselves.
This was the promise the community made to Lyndoch when it was first built more than 60 years ago: first and foremost it would protect and care for the elderly and frail, and those who look after them.
Union action sees scabies outbreak confirmed at Lyndoch
Lyndoch Living has a confirmed outbreak of scabies in its Audrey Prider Centre.
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.
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.
