I am immensely proud to share that ‘Fortress Allambie’ has kept its residents safe for the past 175 days with no resident having experienced a cold, flu or COVID-19! Let’s put it another way, our residents have experienced excellent health and our skilled staff, all across our Company have done everything right in infection control, in our professional knowledge of protecting our residents and fellow staff, in our preparedness and competency in the use of PPE, in our drills now daily to react to a COVID positive result and in our standing together as a strong team against all challenges!

Our team of staff represent the very best of our Aged Care Industry, we are Australia’s ‘Essential Service Workers’ and we are Australia’s finest ‘First Responders’ because we do it every minute of every hour of every day.

We do not need staff ratios, registered nurse or care staff ratios because we have always adapted to changing needs and we have done it as a team, we have done it effectively and we have done it for our residents always.

But our Industry needs to be paid and to be able to charge a fair price for the care and accommodation that we provide to Australia’s older persons. The Government should not be setting the price, dictating the way our businesses operate, regulating us the way they do, we can do that much better and we can remove non-compliant practice and poor Operators better. Have they forgotten that they are contracting us as Operators to provide the services that they don’t and can’t provide competently! You don’t walk in to a ‘Hatted’ Restaurant, tell the Head Chef how to cook a meal and then decide the price you are going to pay for the meal!

We are Australia’s ‘Experts’ in Aged Care. We have been through ‘Restricted Access’, ‘Elevated Restricted Access’ and this week back to ‘Restricted Access’ and we have done so well. We have often been alone in all of this as a team. Of course, I thank our many families who have been supportive and our health and other colleagues when permitted to come into our RACF but it is our team of Company Staff who have been the constants during the past 175 Days and always.

And I know that there are 360,000 fellow ‘essential service workers’ across Australia trying to achieve this every day. Be proud of yourselves, Be Proud to be part of our great Australian Aged Care Industry. And to my team, you are special, let’s keep going for as long as we can with this amazing health metric and wonderful service to our residents!

Fortress Allambie, what a Team!

‘Our Business is Protection’

Ciarán Foley
Chief Executive Officer.
22 September 2020.