Two of the country’s largest providers have restricted access to their aged care homes until further notice, citing the growing risk of infection from visitors.
Suzanne Dvorak (pictured above), the Managing Director Bupa Villages and Aged Care Australia, sent a video update to residents’ families, to advise them they are stopping all visits from today, except for compassionate visits for residents receiving end-of-life care.
You can check it out here.
To encourage residents to stay in touch with the community, Bupa have set up an initiative, Visits by Mail, and have also made arrangements at each home for video calls.
Opal also announced yesterday it will no longer allow visitors to any of its homes after two residents were diagnosed with the virus at different homes in Quakers Hill and Bankstown in Sydney this week.
The only exceptions will be when a resident is receiving end-of-life care or on the first day of a new resident’s admission, but these will be time limited and require visitors to wear PPE.
Opal says they are also taking a number of other measures including checking residents twice daily for temperature and symptoms of COVID-19; assigning team members to designated areas; no external appointments unless they are of a critical clinical nature and no gift or meal deliveries (letters and cards are allowed).
Like other providers, they are also using phone, FaceTime, Skype and Zoom to help relatives stay in touch with their loved ones.
