Monte staff step up
"Whilst staffing levels are not at pre-COVID levels, we have been able to maintain good coverage and haven't compromised care levels."
As the Omicron COVID-19 variant continues to spread around Sydney, Montefiore’s workforce “has been significantly impacted”, CEO Robert Orie told The AJN.
“We currently have around 15 per cent of our direct care staff in isolation, either due to infection or being a close contact. This is about 120 staff members,” he said.
“To fill the vacancies our existing staff have been amazing, with many doing double shifts or forgoing leave to make sure we can maintain appropriate staffing levels.”
Staff that work in non-direct care areas have also “stepped up to assist”, he added, while agency staff have been used to supplement permanent staff members.
“Whilst staffing levels are not at pre-COVID levels, we have been able to maintain good coverage and haven’t compromised care levels.”
Earlier this month, Montefiore put a request to the Community Security Group (CSG) for volunteers at that organisation to take paid shifts to assist with staff shortages.
“To date we haven’t used any, but around 10 have offered their services,” said Orie.
A group of former volunteers has been critical of Monte, saying a lack of training during their involvement with the home has led to the shortage of available volunteers to fill the void.
But Orie said it was about the risk to the volunteers and “has nothing to do with the level of training provided”.
“The reality is that most of our volunteers are older and in the higher-risk category and we didn’t feel comfortable asking them to work in areas where there are COVID-positive cases,” he said.
“In addition, we had concerns about our volunteers having to endure strict infection-control protocols which requires the wearing of full PPE. This is exhausting for younger staff members, let alone older volunteers.
“The fact remains that exposing older volunteers to COVID-19, no matter how well trained they are, is irresponsible.”
According to NSW Health, there are currently more than 200,000 active cases of COVID-19 in the state, with almost 3000 of them requiring hospitalisation.
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