Pass marks for aged care

West Gippsland Healthcare Group’s aged care facilities - Cooinda Lodge at Warragul and Andrews House at Trafalgar - have been re-accredited by the federal Health Department.

WGHG acting chief executive officer Audra Fenton said Andrews House complied on all measures and Cooinda had also been endorsed for another two years although advised of some improvements needed in six of the 42 areas on which it was assessed.

Ms Fenton said the group had been advised the improvements could be undertaken over 12 months.

“We are accredited for the next two years anyway,” she said.

“If there were any issues they would make you remedy them within six weeks. But if you’re given 12 months notice it means that it’s things you need to improve on.”

Cooinda Lodge can accommodate a maximum of 30 residents.

Ms Fenton said the Royal Commission into aged care had raised the bar on the standards to be met.

“It’s focused around the new aged care standards... it’s more about resident choice than it ever has been,” she said.

“We have a very active residents committee where there are residents reps on the committee, as well as staff members, as well as family members of the residents

“They work through things like looking at food choices, activity choices, those sorts of things to make sure the residents have a lot of input into how their day runs.”

Ms Fenton said staffing was a focus of the Royal Commission. However, things worked differently for Cooinda and Andrews House than they would for organisations not attached to a a healthcare service like WGHG.

“It’s not just nurses and doctors - we’ve also got lifestyle staff and allied health staff... we can access a full multidisciplinary team when we need to,” she said.Fairview Village’s residential aged care at Warragul has also had its accreditation renewed for another two years after assessments earlier this year.

Rumours that Fairview Village’s residential aged care section that has 68 residents had restrictions placed on it after an assessment were categorically denied by chief executive officer Dianne Wallace.

“We passed the accreditation assessment in February with flying colours”.

It was a wonderful commendation of staff and residents, Ms Wallace said.