29/04/2023
Southern Cross Care (Broken Hill) Ltd statement 28th April 2023.
The Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission has reaccredited both St Anne’s and Harold Williams Homes.
The Commission conducted site audits on St Anne’s Home and Harold Williams Home during February. On the days they visited issues were noted which didn’t meet all of the requirements of the Aged Care Quality Standards which have been redeveloped recently and issued Notices of Non -Compliance. This is a notice detailing particular issues at each home on those days when the site audits were conducted.
Since this audit both homes have been reaccredited and the accreditation reports are available on the Commission website. The reaccreditation of each home is a result of the Commission considering the response by Southern Cross Care (Broken Hill) to the Notices received, the immediate action taken to remedy the most urgent and critical issues, the lodging of detailed plans for Continuous Improvement that attend to all of the issues identified (with timeframes), and the immediate engagement of health consultants to help in the remediation process and to also provide targeted and intense training to prevent reported issues arising again. Our consultants have been on site now for six weeks assisting us, and the training programme for team members commenced two weeks ago.
A subsequent visit to Broken Hill in early April gave senior Commission officers a first hand look at our homes, the progress we have made in a short time, and an understanding of the critical importance of our Aged Care facilities to the Broken Hill community. They recognised the team members passion and commitment in caring for members of our community. There was high praise for the efforts of aged care workers who have often worked huge hours in difficult conditions through Covid- 19 outbreaks and large shortages of people across all areas of aged care to ensure they could continue to deliver high quality care to people in our homes, and often foregoing leave in the process. A changed Aged Care regulatory environment is also a complicating factor that has to be coped with. The visiting officers indicated a positive approval of our homes and particularly the interactions between residents and team members.
The Commission also indicated their willingness to provide support and advice in acknowledgement of our rapid progress and ongoing commitment, and our honesty and transparency displayed by quickly relaying information prior to Easter about our non compliance issues to residents, consumer advocates, and team members. The Commission’s offer of support is welcome and we are working closely with them, and appreciating their advice.
The important role of Deputy Director of Nursing at St Anne’s is now filled and will assist in clinical care governance and the provision of support to our nursing teams. We are managing to slowly increase our team numbers in each home, are advertising consistently for more, and have been successful in attracting further Registered Nurses. Several of our current team members have recently graduated as Enrolled Nurses and Registered Nurses, with further team members currently working towards these qualifications. We are also implementing further processes to ensure ongoing educational opportunities for our staff.
Southern Cross Care is committed and has prioritised the rectification of all issues identified by the Commission in a timely manner as well as ensuring there are ongoing continuous improvement plans embedded into the organisation to ensure legislative compliance is met into the future. Most importantly our primary focus is to ensure quality care of our residents.
Bernard Nankivell
Chief Executive Officer
