Winter Newsletter 2022

WINTER HAS ARRIVED

After what can only be described as a wonderfully long, dry summer, winter has certainly arrived with a hiss and a roar. While the windy, wet weather has been somewhat of a shock, we are still managing to go on outings here in Rotorua when we are able.

MATARIKI

We are looking forward to the first public holiday to celebrate Matariki on Friday 24 June. The reappearance of the Matariki stars brings the past year to a close for Māori and marks the beginning of the new year. It is a great opportunity for friends and whānau to come together to acknowledge the year gone by and honour those loved ones that we have lost; celebrate the present by gathering to give thanks for what we have; and look forward to the promise of a new year.  We wish you all a happy and safe long weekend.

THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

The Commonwealth Games will be taking place in Birmingham between 28 July and 8 August. With over 283 events taking place within 26 sports, our residents will be cheering on all our talented kiwi athletes in their quests to win medals.

COVID UPDATE

We hope this newsletter finds you all well. We feel that we have been extremely lucky to get to this stage of COVID pandemic relatively unscathed.

We have had several staff off sick with COVID over the last few months and after they had recovered, we had a small outbreak within the Rest Home. We are happy to say that those residents were not seriously sick and recovered relatively quickly.

Our Infection Control Policy was extremely robust, however and the staff were fantastic. We are very lucky to have such caring and hard-working staff who diligently implemented our infection control policies and picked up extra hours to cover those staff members who were isolating.

The layout of the Rest Home was also extremely helpful in managing the small outbreak, as we were able to contain the infection in one wing. The containment meant that the residents in that wing were able to be successfully isolated from the rest of the residents.

Currently we are COVID free (touch wood) and we are fairly back to normal – well… the new normal with masks. But we are very aware that winter brings a number of new health challenges so we remain very vigilant.

We are just awaiting a few more residents now that we are able to take new admissions again.

STAFF NEWS

 At the end of 2021, our Nurse Manager, Jane Tiu, left to go on Maternity Leave. After welcoming her little one at the beginning of the year, she has since decided to spend time at home and has resigned from her role as Nurse Manager. Tuaine Petero-Allen, who was interim Nurse Manager during Jane’s maternity leave, has returned to her role as Clinical Nurse Manager now that this period has expired.

Co-owner, Gail Temperton, is now our interim Nurse Manager.  Gail has a huge amount of nursing experience particularly in aged care, having previously owned and managed Cromwell House Home and Hospital in Auckland for over 15 years.

You may have seen in the media that there is currently a huge nationwide shortage of Registered Nurses and Health Care Assistants in the aged-care sector. The general shortage of registered nurses in New Zealand has seen district health boards employing them out of an already short-staffed sector (hospital nurses work under a separate collective agreement to those in aged residential care, creating a pay gap). With the borders shut, aged care has not been able to backfill the nurses it lost this year.

So we are very fortunate to currently have three full-time Registered Nurses at Fergusson Home.

VILLAGE NEWS

 After a few units were flooded following the extreme weather events in April, we are happy to say that contractors are currently upgrading the drainage to prevent this occurring again.

Unit 1 is currently vacant. We are in the stages of marketing it and showing prospective buyers around.