Aged care home staff continue to work unvaccinated as two more residents test positive

The manager of a north-west Sydney aged care facility says she urged staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19 but unvaccinated staff are still working after more residents tested positive over the weekend.

“I’m extremely disappointed, we didn’t want to be the nursing home that had COVID come in,” Michelle Sloane, chief operating officer of SummitCare Baulkham Hills, said on Monday morning.

Five residents at SummitCare Baulkham Hills have now tested positive to COVID-19.Credit: Jessica Hromas

“Since the [vaccination] program began, I’ve been attending staff meetings as I sit in each of the homes, and urging them to go and be vaccinated. But we couldn’t insist.”

Two new cases were recorded at SummitCare on Sunday, bringing the total number of residents who have tested positive to COVID-19 after a carer worked while unknowingly infectious to five, four of whom were vaccinated.

Ms Sloane said staff were still coming to work unvaccinated.

“The staff are amazing, and frankly, if I can say, I think it’s admirable that they’re coming to work unvaccinated, in a home that has COVID. And that to me shows their dedication to their residents’ care and they’re to be commended,” she said.

Asked whether it was safe for unvaccinated workers to be attending the site, Ms Sloane said public health officials assured her there would be no risk as long as all hygiene protocols were followed.

“If we said to all of our unvaccinated staff don’t come to work, then there’d be no one to care. And that’s not just us, that’s every aged care business across Australia and every hospital across Australia.”

She said new national measures to make vaccines mandatory for aged care staff from mid-September should improve the vaccination rate going forward.

Kathie Melocco, whose parents were transferred to hospital after her father tested positive, told 2GB on Monday morning families weren’t told staff were unvaccinated.

“I’m furious. I had assumed when mum and dad were vaccinated, and after all the trouble we’ve had in aged care, that the jab was given to staff at the same time,” she said.

The new cases were both women in their 70s. One of the women had been vaccinated, but the other had not after only entering the facility in mid-May.

Both women have been transferred to Westmead Hospital as a precaution. The three previous cases, as well as one of the cases’ partners who lived in the facility, have also been transferred.

Asked if all residents were believed to have been infected by the initial staff member case, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the cases were not occurring in unexpected parts of the accommodation.

“My understanding is the cases are arising in the area where we would expect the cases to occur and that there’s quite robust infection control measures put in place,” she said.

Ms Sloane confirmed all infected residents lived in the same wing of the facility. She added that early investigations showed air flow was unlikely the cause of the transmission, as rooms had individual air conditioning units.

“I can’t predict that more residents won’t test positive. What I can predict is at the moment they’re
asymptomatic and comfortable,” she said.

Dr Chant said staff who may have been working at the time had been identified and put into quarantine for 14 days.

She said she understood families of residents would be concerned.

“I’d like to assure them, there is a lot of attention to doing everything we can to prevent any further transmission but ... until we’re passed that 14 days since those residents were last exposed to the infectious staff we are not out of the woods,” she said.

On Sunday, Ms Sloane said only one-third of SummitCare Baulkham Hills’ staff had been vaccinated.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard was unable to put a number on how many aged care staff had been vaccinated in the state, after NSW offered to take on responsibility for vaccinating the sector from the federal government.

“I can’t give you that specific number at the moment but certainly there were a lot of staff that did come forward and I think that’s a positive,” Mr Hazzard said.

Earlier this year, it was revealed the federal government was surveying aged care workplaces to determine the vaccination rates of their staff, after this data was not recorded elsewhere.

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