HUNTER aged care facilities are still in "crisis" as COVID-19 outbreaks continue to challenge a struggling workforce that is "working around the clock" to care for vulnerable residents.
As Hunter New England continued to record the highest new case numbers in the state with more than 2,150 new cases on Monday, Australian Government data showed there were about 70 Lower Hunter aged care residents and 43 staff members with COVID-19 as of March 31.
The data shows Maitland Grange Care Community had 25 residents and 12 staff who were COVID-positive, Hamilton's Uniting Lindsay Gardens had 24 residents, 14 staff and one death, and Amaroo Aged Care facility at Charlestown had 15 residents and six staff impacted.
But the Newcastle Herald was advised by a concerned family member that Amaroo had 39 residents and 20 staff members COVID-positive on the weekend. She was concerned the facility - which she said was "already short-staffed" prior to the outbreak - would struggle to attend to the needs of the residents, and that they had already been "too stretched" to be able to facilitate FaceTime or window-visits for loved ones.
"I was told there were 39 residents with COVID currently and that 20 staff are off with COVID," the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
"They were already short staffed so I'm not sure how they have managed to bathe, feed, and attend all the residents. I'm really concerned... If they have 20 staff off... I don't know if you can count that many staff on any given day."
The facility manager at Amaroo Aged Care at Charlestown, who declined to be named, would not confirm or deny the number of COVID-positive residents or staff furloughed, citing privacy concerns.
"We have got an outbreak at Amaroo and we are working very closely with the public health department to contain it," she said.
The Australian Defence Force had supported them for four days when they were short staffed, she said.
"Aged care is in a crisis at the moment, but I couldn't have a better team around me looking after these residents," she said.
"My staff are doing an amazing job. They go above and beyond for our residents, and always have - especially in extreme circumstances like this. They are working around the clock to make sure all of our residents are safe. Everyone steps out of their roles here. Everyone is doing everything they can to help residents."
The facility has about 95 staff members in total, and 95 residents. They were to begin facilitating FaceTime sessions for residents' families on Monday.
As of March 31, there 658 active outbreaks in residential aged care across Australia. Of these, 2,101 cases were residents and 1,863 were staff.
