With 16 residents of Newmarch House – the Western Sydney aged care home at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak – now sadly passed away, it’s easy to believe the negative media stories that the care being provided to those who live in the home must be lacking.
So, it was heartening last night to see Louise Payne – whose 89-year-old mother Yvonne is a resident of the home and has tested positive for COVID-19 – defend the staff and operator on the ABC’s 7:30 Report last night.
Ms Payne told host Leigh Sales that while the aged care home had struggled at the beginning of the outbreak, Anglicare has made “major gains”, particularly once the Federal Government provided the resources and staff that the home needed to deal with the outbreak.
“We’re getting terrific information now,” she said. “We’re getting two calls a day if your resident is COVID positive from the RNs. We’ve had webinars with the doctors answering all our questions, we get daily updates, we’ve been offered counselling and pastoral care should we need it.”
“I can’t fault that, we certainly know what’s going on there so that’s really wonderful.”
Ms Payne also viewed the news that an independent aged care adviser had been appointed to oversee the home during the outbreak as a positive – for both the residents and Anglicare.
“I’m not really sure how that’s come about but it’s always good to have another set of eyes and hopefully they’ll come in and see all the good things that have happened and that will be good for Anglicare and also if there are things that need to be done, they’ll be able to get done and I think from the communication we’ve received from Anglicare, I think they’re welcoming that resource to come in because it can only help.”
“They’re all on the same page as us,” she added. “Everyone wants the very best for their families and we know that there are good things happening in there. We just need to make sure there’s not more that we could do and we need to learn from it too.”
Ms Payne also praised the staff, who she says are working “tirelessly hard”.
“They’re really risking their lives every time they go there and they just keep turning up and the care that they show our loved ones is just beautiful.”
“I had two nurses that I’ve spoken to, I’ve spoken to lots of nurses but two that I remember particularly because both of them were crying with me saying that they were treating Mum like she was their own mother and I totally believe that that’s what’s happening and I totally believe that that’s what’s happening with all of the residents. The care is just absolutely beautiful.”
“I know Mum’s in a good place to be cared for,” she concluded.
Discussion1 Comment
I know it is easy to blame a home in crisis, but look at other countries. Sweden with 1500 deaths in nursing homes( 50% of the homes had COVID-19 residents. This a once in a hundred years problem that none of us have ever faced now living an aged care is making its own rules to try to protect their people. I feel for Newmarch House, I am sure much was done to help those poor residents and staff.