’s aged care facility continues to meet guidelines

With aged care facilities around the state in danger of closing (three closed in Sydney last week), some forward planning and a lot of hard work by the Lilliane Brady Village Management and Governance Committee, will ensure Cobar’s aged care facility remains open.

All government-funded aged care providers are required to comply with Aged Care Quality Standards and many facilities are currently struggling to adhere to those standards.

The standards reflect the level of care and services the community expects from aged care providers.

As part of those standards, from this July all approved aged care providers must have at least one Registered Nurse (RN) on-site and on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety carried out in 2018/2019 identified that staffing levels were critical to the quality of residential care, and recommended at least one RN be on-site at all times at each residential facility.

The commission determined having a 24/7 RN reduces the risk of resident harm by ensuring qualified and experienced care staff are always available to identify and address potential risks.

The Cobar Shire Council-owned LBV aged care facility has struggled for some time to recruit permanent staff, in particular RN’s, however the use of agency staff has ensured the LBV remains compliant with the standards.

Council’s director of finance and community services, Kym Miller said the committee raised concerns towards the end of last year that there were only two RNs on staff.

Mr Miller said the committee has worked in conjunction with council to increase that number now to five RNs, some of whom are permanent while the others are agency staff.

“Some are here for longer terms than others,” Mr Miller said.

“There’s such a shortage of RN’s in the country that there’s going to be exemptions to the guidelines, but we have been able to meet them.

“We are getting close to 40 residents and are now able to use those extra bed licenses we were granted.

“And for us that’s really important because we can start to breathe a little bit financially at 40 rather than the old bench mark of 33 that we had for so long.

“It makes it more cost efficient,” he said.

“We are not even contemplating closing it down, we are not contemplating selling it.

“We’re trying to make it more efficient and that will probably be through a structural change,” Mr Miller said.

A much loved local resident, Jean Poulter (at left) recently celebrated her 90th birthday. The celebrations have continued with VIEW Club president Enid English presenting Jean with flowers to mark the milestone at the club’s monthly meeting yesterday.