22 October 2021
Dear family member/resident representative
I am sad to advise that one of our Tarrawanna Aged Care Centre residents who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 passed away last night. The woman was in her 90s and had been with us since July this year.
While her daughters were unable to attend the care centre, staff arranged a call for them to spend time with their mother yesterday and say goodbye. Our thoughts are with the resident’s family and friends as they grieve her loss.
Test results
Pleasingly, all results from yesterday’s COVID-19 tests of residents and staff were negative.
The majority of residents and all employees will be tested again today. We have moved to testing every second day for residents in the Kookaburra wing, as we have had no positive cases in that area of the care centre.
We are currently caring for 20 residents who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 at the care centre. Understandably, residents are growing tired of being confined to their rooms, and we’ve observed some residents are declining due to their age and underlying medical conditions. We are delivering additional care and support to these residents with input from the Virtual Community Care team and keeping their families up to date with daily phone calls from our team.
We are expecting two of the three residents who were being cared for at Wollongong Hospital to return to the care centre today. The third resident has moved to Bulli Hospital for ongoing monitoring.
Resident wellbeing
We continue to do all we can to keep all our residents comfortable, safe and entertained, and connected to their loved ones via phone or video calls.
The team will be delivering gifts of hand cream and lip balm today and we continue to work on plans for exercise and activities for those residents that are able to participate.
Ongoing communication
As the nominated representative of your loved one, I will continue to update you via this daily email and the team will continue making daily calls. Please pass on this information to other family contacts as appropriate.
If you have any questions or concerns we would appreciate it if you call our Customer Service Team on 134 478.
Thank you for your ongoing patience and understanding.
Yours sincerely
Nia Briguglio
EGM – Aged Care Centres
