industry & reform
On the front line
Michelle Sloane addresses the media . Photo : Adam Yip / NewsCorp Australia
Inside the home that battled Delta .
By Eleanor Campbell
It was one o ’ clock in the morning when Michelle Sloane got the call .
She got out of bed , drove to Baulkham Hills in Sydney ’ s west , and by 3.00am she was informing families that a COVID-19 outbreak had spread inside their loved ones ’ home .
“ My heart dropped ,” says Michelle as she remembers the call .
Michelle was the chief executive of SummitCare at the time , a company with 10 homes across greater Sydney .
“ Something you never want to hear as a CEO is that you ’ ve got a positive COVID test in your home .”
After witnessing the devastation the virus wrought on the country ’ s residential aged care homes , including in Melbourne where over 600 lives were lost , providers around the country began scrambling to prepare for the worst .
Michelle says that prior to this year ’ s outbreak , SummitCare had revised multiple outbreak planning scenarios , and felt prepared when the Delta variant began its spread through NSW .
But within a week of that 1.00am call , 11 people in Baulkham Hills , including five
14 | nursingreview . com . au workers and six residents , were infected with the virus .
“ In the early stages , it felt a bit like a war zone ,” says Michelle , who seems calm when remembering those early days , yet slightly shaken from the experience .
In the early hours of that first morning , all the infected residents were transferred to Westmead Hospital and over 80 per cent of the facility ’ s staff were sent into isolation .
For every staff member lost , two more workers were needed to fill the gaps .
“ I believe we were very well prepared ,” says Michelle . “ We had a very strong pandemic outbreak plan , and we had a very strong communications plan .
“ One thing we did realise is you can plan as much as you want , but when you ’ re in the middle of an outbreak , it ’ s very different to what you ’ ve planned .”
Prior to the outbreak , Michelle and her team had performed emergency scenarios , stocked up on PPE , organised webinars , and had undergone infection control processes .
Still , she hadn ’ t anticipated the onsite kitchen would need to be closed and that mass amounts of food would need to be ferried in to feed the residents and staff .
In the thick of it , she says , it was the small details that caught her off guard .
“ There ’ s unexpected things you come across in that first outbreak – the loss of staff , the quantity of contaminated waste .
“ Then the other surprises of not being able to cook onsite and not being able to shower residents .”
After hearing news of the outbreak , 25-year-old registered nurse Shumayl Gulzar was asked if she would transfer to Baulkham Hills from her SummitCare home in Smithfield .
“ It was very intimidating going in and I calmed myself down , saying , ‘ you are a registered nurse and it ’ s your responsibility ’,” she told Aged Care Insite . “ So , I walked in , and I ’ m glad I did .” When she told her husband that she would be on the frontlines of an active outbreak , he feared for her safety .
“ I told him , look , I ’ m a registered nurse and you married one and you should be aware that it ’ s part of my job .”
Shuymal ’ s nerves calmed the moment she walked onto the premises . She was greeted by a large infection control team , an army of supplies , a large table of PPE , and a team of RNs and care workers , just like herself , ready to get to work .
During the first 72 hours , the team worked tirelessly into the early hours of the morning . Shumayl says the staff had to remind each other to eat and rest , and each person took turns to go upstairs to have a break when they could .