A report on last week’s meeting.

Rosemary Freeman – Rotary Club of Moreland

Our Club joined in the ZOOM meeting with the Rotary Club of Moreland to hear Rosemary Freeman relate her first-hand experiences of Covid-19.

Rosemary is a healthcare professional in a private physiotherapy practice. Her regular schedule takes her to an aged care home in Pascoe Vale where Rosemary has experienced first-hand the challenges and heartbreak of working in a high-risk Covid environment.

Two key messages stay with me:

Firstly, the practicalities of caring for aged-care residents, difficult at the best of times, make at almost impossible to at the same time apply all recommended Covid-19 safety procedures. It is no wonder that once the virus spread within the general community it was inevitable that there would be a surge in cases within the aged care sector.

Secondly, an unquantifiable cost of the virus in an aged care setting is the enormous emotional impact on residents and their families who have been unable to be with their loved ones, especially as they approach their end of life.
The aged care sector has always been problematic with a huge gap between the quality of care ideally desirable and the funding available to provide it.

It will be interesting to see how the recommendations of the recent Royal Commission are ultimately translated into actions.

A pdf copy of the bulletin can be found here. RC of Ivanhoe 7 Oct 2020