REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: Well, I'm really proud to be here at Deloraine Aged Care at Grenoch to be able to announce the federal government has committed almost $18 million to build a new wing for an additional 40 beds, but also a range of other services that will enhance the homely feel of this beautiful facility. The residents in this community deserve to have access to the highest quality aged care, and they've got amazing staff who can help do that and support them, but making sure that we can accommodate more older people in this community to come and live here is really vital.
I'm joined today by Nadine Ozols who's the CEO, and Michael Duniam who's the project manager for this particular effort that the aged care facility is undertaking, who'll be able to speak to the specifics of what this funding will provide.
But for us as the federal government, we're just so pleased to be able to partner with really fantastic organisations like this one to be able to provide more options for older Tasmanians to age in the communities where they've lived their whole lives. And really, that's what matters the most. It's about making sure that we invest in facilities that are going to be able to help people remain in their communities, remain close to their families, and have access to the best infrastructure, supported through the best services.
I understand, and Nadine can speak to this further, that not only are we able to build an additional 40 beds here in Deloraine for aged care, but also, there'll be allied health service spaces created, there'll be a hydrotherapy pool and there'll be shared areas for members of this facility to be able to gather together, to be able to talk and share stories, and just to be able to live in a way that reflects how they would have lived if they were back at home.
And that's what we want. We want to be able to live in our communities, surrounded by our friends and our family as we get older, and be able to share those stories and reflect on those memories. And here, we're able to invest in a service that's doing just that. I'm really proud of it.
JOURNALIST: I guess how much of a difference will this upgrade make?
NADINE OZOLS, AGED CARE DELORAINE CEO: This is a huge difference for Aged Care Deloraine. We wouldn't be able to fund this of our own merit. So, being able to receive an Australian Government grant is a fundamental change for the organisation. Moving forward, it will really help to secure our future to ensure that we can actually provide ongoing care and meet the needs of our community. We do have an ageing population, so this is greatly needed.
JOURNALIST: I guess, how many bed – or how many residents can live here at the moment? And are you constantly, I guess, full?
OZOLS: We're really lucky. We actually do have a waiting list. Currently, we have 46 beds. We do have capacity for 47. We have a lovely couples suite. So we can take 47. So, having the extra 40 beds is going to really meet those needs as we move forward.
JOURNALIST: And the other services, how much of a difference will they make, especially something like the hydrotherapy pool?
OZOLS: It's going to be a huge difference having those other communal areas, particularly for all of the residents that live here, not just the extra 40 beds. Having extra communal spaces in aged care, particularly in older buildings where space is limited, being able to build a whole new wing and adding in those communal spaces is going to make a big difference to ensure that residents have somewhere different to go.
You know, if some residents are just going to want a quiet space, we're going to make sure we have quiet spaces. Things like having a cinema is really important to some of the residents. Having consulting rooms for the GPs and allied health services to be able to come and actually see residents in a consulting room as opposed to in their bedrooms, I think, is going to make a huge difference.
The hydrotherapy area is going to be huge. We're going to have a gym area, hopefully, as well. So, at the moment, our physiotherapists do undertake activities in our one lounge room here at Grenoch, so this will mean that we're going to have an actual dedicated gym where some of our gym enthusiasts – who knows, we might even have some gym junkies climbing in to fill it.
But yeah, very – it's going to mean a huge difference, even for the staff as well, just to have different areas to run activities, to meet, for families to come in. And actually, I really would love to see a little cafe set up so that families can come onsite. Rather than having to take the residents offsite, they can actually come to their home and have a beautiful space to meet.
JOURNALIST: On average, I guess, how many people are on your waiting list?
OZOLS: At the moment, we have about 5 to 6 people on this particular waiting list. It’s been building that over time.
JOURNALIST: So, I guess the 40 beds will probably alleviate a lot of that pressure?
OZOLS: Absolutely, yeah. We're hearing in the data that there's a huge rush coming, so we would want to make sure that we're ready. We realise that the 40 beds aren't going to be filled up straight away, it's going to take time. But I think that'll be a nice, gentle sort of immersion of the residents into our existing community.
JOURNALIST: Will you have the staffing numbers to, I guess, service those extra beds?
OZOLS: We're really proud of how we attract and retain our staff at Aged Care Deloraine. Often, we find we don't even have to advertise for positions. So, we have a lot of word-of-mouth referrals from our existing staff, which is really great.
We actually staff above the care limits as well, so we probably have more staff – well, we do have more staff than what we actually need, we’re really proud of, creating a workplace culture where staff feel that they have that extra time to spend with residents. So I think some of those strategies, yeah, it’s all part of creating an environment where our residents are happy and cared for. But also our staff have a workplace that they’re really proud of and want to be part of.
JOURNALIST: What do you think makes it such a great place for staff to be, because I know other aged care places definitely don’t have that retention.
OZOLS: I think it’s the commitment to staffing above and beyond. Our board have been on a journey of creating and working on our workplace culture. So basically, you know, it’s no surprises we’ve had our difficulties in the past with our financial situation, but the board are really dedicated to putting any extra money basically directly onto the floor into staff time. So, we’ve been doing that over the years as we get a pool of money, it goes back into a new shift. And we’re building that trust with the staff, that we are committed to putting back into the actual staffing pool and increasing the numbers. And I think having those extra numbers on the floor, anyone that works in aged care will tell you that the hardest thing is that you feel like you don’t have enough time to actually spend with residents. So I think if we can actually add that extra time, little by little over the journey, then that creates a workplace where people feel more fulfilled.
I’d like to think too that we like to have a bit of fun. I think being in a rural community, there's that extra care factor there. We keep each other accountable as well.
JOURNALIST: How does the higher staffing level translate into care for the residents here?
OZOLS: I should be asking the residents this question, shouldn't I? But I think our feedback from our residents speaks volumes. You've only got to go and actually ask individual residents what their experience is. And generally speaking, I think it's always fairly positive. We're only human and we do make mistakes, but we do pride ourselves on the way that we fix mistakes and we work with people to try and do better next time and make sure a mistake doesn't happen again.
JOURNALIST: Great. Michael, can we ask you some questions? A bit more logistical stuff. Can you tell us more about each room? I guess, what will be featured in it?
MICHAEL DUNIAM, PROJECT AND FACILITIES MANAGER: We've actually done some renovations at Grenoch recently, so we've been able to really bed down that perfect kind of room. So we have ceiling rails built in, so that's a dignity thing for our residents. We have bathrooms with underfloor heating. We have spacious rooms. We're actually putting in spaces for small fridges as well. So yeah, we're just trying to make them feel at home.
JOURNALIST: And I guess, when can we expect construction to start?
DUNIAM: We're hoping to break soil at the end of this year. So at the moment we're in the designing phase. All our surveyors have completed their work so we're at the beginning, but we're going to move fairly quickly.
JOURNALIST: And I heard you say before that you kind of hope the space feels more like a hotel, but less hotel-y. I guess, what did you mean by that, and why is that important?
DUNIAM: Well, for us, we want the space to be inviting. But I guess we don't want that hotel look, we don't want our residents to feel like they're in a hotel,. We want them to feel at home. So with our other facility and here as well, we try and bring that country feel into the decor, we're quite conscious of our decor, of our chair selections, of our paintings. We're trying to enhance that rural feel, because a lot of our residents that do come in here are farmers, have worked on the land. So we try and match our homes to our potential residents.
JOURNALIST: And will construction, I guess, cause much disruption?
DUNIAM: No, so we're quite lucky that we actually have a vacant parcel of land that we're going to be constructing on, so the new building will connect into the old. But as far as construction of the new building, it will be separate to the home, so we don't actually envisage any disruptions to the home at all.
JOURNALIST: Do you know any kind of timeline on the actual build after you do start, or is that still part of the design process and figuring it out?
DUNIAM: Yeah, so we're hoping to be finished by mid 2029, But that is quite ambitious, but that's what we're hoping. Because of the scale of the building, a lot of it will be pre-cast concrete, and so we do expect that it will progress fairly quickly. And being a greenfield site, there's not going to be any disruption to services or anything, so they can kind of get in and get the building constructed.
JOURNALIST: How will more aged care beds help things like access and flow in the hospitals like the LGH?
WHITE: We've got a $4.3 billion program of investment in aged care that is about providing more facilities like this where we're adding on to residential aged care, but also providing more packages of home care, with 83,000 packages of home care rolling out as we speak around the country. And that will help people to remain in their homes longer. It will take pressure off our hospitals because we want people to be able to access the care they need where they are. And if we can avoid presentations to hospitals or get people moving through hospitals faster and back home quicker, then obviously that's in the patient's best interest.
At the end of the day, I want all Tasmanians to be able to have access to the care that they need, whether that’s at home or in hospital. And so, we’re determined to work constructively with the state government to make sure we can deliver on that.
JOURNALIST: Speaking of hospitals, HACSU is striking again this morning at the LGH. Do you have any comments about how negotiations have kind of stalled between the state government and the union?
WHITE: My comment would be that I’d encourage the state Government to come to the table in good faith and negotiate with the workers, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who are delivering the services. They are under pressure to provide care for Tasmanians who need access to health services right across our hospital system. They understand what they need to do their job well, and the government needs to listen to them.