New Aged Care Facility Planned

MEDIA RELEASE

NEW AGED CARE FACILITY ON THE CARDS FOR CORNER INLET

A new, state-of-the art residential aged care facility could be built in Foster if a Federal Government funding application being submitted next month is successful.

Prom Country Aged Care (PCAC) President, Robert Knight, said the proposal would see the two existing homes – Prom View Lodge in Toora and Banksia Lodge in Foster – combined into a single new 60-bed facility that would care for the needs of all residents, regardless of whether they needed low or high levels of care.

The proposed changes emerged from a strategic planning process that the PCAC Board undertook earlier this year with the help of aged care expert, Dennis Boyd of DRB Strategic Management Essentials.

“We conducted an in-depth review of our facilities to see how they could meet our community’s future needs and expectations bearing in mind predicted shifts in demand for aged care services and changes to government funding”, he said.

The review revealed that over the next few years demand for low care hostel accommodation, such as at Banksia Lodge, will decrease, while the need for high care nursing home accommodation, such as at Prom View Lodge, will grow.

Mr Knight said that this shift in demand presents PCAC with a major problem because the current facilities cannot provide the flexibility needed to accommodate a changing mix of residents, from low care to high care.

Prom Country Aged Care is faced with three significant challenges:

1. Banksia Lodge was never designed to accommodate high care residents and it doesn’t meet the necessary high care building certification standards. The cost to modify the premises to bring them up to high care standard would be prohibitive;

2. Prom View Lodge is old, the cost of maintaining it is high and it cannot meet modern-day expectations; and

3. Providing residential services from two geographically distant sites means there is limited ability to share resources and the subsequent duplication of services leads to higher than necessary operating costs.

Mr Knight says that PCAC’s high cost structure is putting the organisation’s long-term financial viability at risk.

“We are currently losing money on our daily operations and the only thing that keeps us afloat is the interest we earn on residents’ bonds. This means we’re seriously vulnerable. If we’re not profitable, we can’t invest in the future and we won’t be here in five years”.

The review identified that cost savings of more than $200,000 a year could be achieved through reduced duplication in areas such as information technology and communications systems, maintenance, accreditation costs, meals and laundry services, management systems and travel time, if the two operations merged.

“It’s clear to the Board that we need to make some big decisions now to ensure we are able to meet our community’s future needs”, he said.

Mr Knight said that combining low care and high care services in one flexible facility would have profound benefits for residents and their families.

“A recent trend in residential aged care is the introduction of ‘ageing in place’, which enables people to receive low-level or high-level care in the same place of residence.

“It’s especially beneficial for couples with different care needs who, under the current system, might need to be separated. Ageing in place spares residents the distress of having to move from a familiar low care hostel to an unfamiliar nursing home when they become more frail and their care needs change.

“This is a really significant issue for our residents and their families, and we now have an opportunity to remove that cause of stress and anxiety from their lives”.

The new facility is expected to generate job opportunities in a number of areas, including nursing, lifestyle and activities and personal care.

A search for potential sites is currently being discussed, with an emphasis on finding one close to Foster’s hospital and medical centre.

Proximity to a range of other community services, including the Senior Citizens Club, library, theatre, shopping and allied health services contributed to Foster being the preferred location.

“If our funding application is successful and we are able to secure suitable land, we would expect the new service would be up and running in around three to five years”, Mr Knight said.

For more information contact:

Joanne Stringer (Prom Country Aged Care) Mob: 0419573377