Calvary Ryde Retirement Community – Mary Potter Residential Care fails key quality standards

A Sydney aged care home has come under scrutiny after an inspection heard residents were not receiving showers for three days and waiting up to 40 minutes to receive assistance from staff.

An inspection of the home was carried out by the aged care watchdog.

A Sydney aged care home has come under scrutiny after an inspection heard residents were not receiving showers for three days and waiting up to 40 minutes to receive assistance from staff.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has found the Calvary Ryde Retirement Community – Mary Potter Residential Care failed to meet seven of the eight compliance standards it uses to assess aged care homes including consumer dignity and choice, personal care and clinical care, organisational governance, and services and supports for daily living.

The findings came after the commission carried out a three day inspection of the 116-room facility in April.

The report detailing areas of noncompliance highlighted concerns including residents not always receiving safe and effective care that was best practice or tailored to their needs.

Staff shortages were a key concern with some employees of the facility telling inspectors they had a lack of time to complete their duties including completing important charts, such as bowel charts, repositioning charts and food and fluid charts.

A photo of the facility.

Residents told inspectors there had been instances of staff not assisting them with showers which one resident said often meant they were still wet when putting on clothes. Some staff also told inspectors that residents who liked a shower every day sometimes did not receive a shower for three days.

Staff told inspectors the shortage of employees meant they were not able to spend quality time with residents, including for those who felt lonely.

During the inspection, one resident was seen repeatedly calling out for assistance over a 40-minute period with no staff present in the vicinity to observe or intervene.

Other areas of noncompliance included wound care documentation which lacked information in relation to the size of wounds and clear photographs to review progress.

A complaints register maintained by the home showed there were 27 complaints about the services at the facility from November 2022 to April 2023.

Five of the complaints related to staff “being rude”, and two complaints about residents not being assisted to shower regularly.

The inspection was carried out by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Photo: Generic.

Six complaints related to the laundry service including missing clothing. Food was another area of concern with a majority of residents saying they were not satisfied with the variety, taste and quality of meals.

Most residents said the food was not hot enough or to their taste and complained of toast not being cooked properly, and tea, coffee and soup not being served hot enough.

As part of the inspection, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has listed 16 requirements for the home to implement to meet compliance standards, including ensuring staff provide each resident with assistance with their personal care.

In a written response to the audit, Calvary Ryde Retirement Community said it had protocols to fill vacant shifts, including with casual staff or agency personnel.

Since the inspection, it has commenced education including a dementia course and was committed to improving staff knowledge in wound care

It is carrying out an improvement plan to address knowledge and competency in documenting skin injury and wound care and “is working hard at providing quality food”, the response states.

In a statement a Calvary spokeswoman said the company was committed to improving the quality of care it deliver to residents

“The commission’s recent audit identified some opportunities for improvement at our Ryde facility, and Calvary is already working to address the matters,” she said.

“We are also investing in recruiting additional nursing and care staff to enable the changes that will take place at Ryde.

“Calvary is committed to continual improvement and delivering high quality care across our residential aged care homes, and we welcome the opportunity to assess our performance against national measures.”

The audit is part of checks by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission which assesses aged care providers against eight quality benchmarks.

The standards are designed to make it easier to check that residents of aged care facilities receive “good care” and outline what “a good aged care should look like”.