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Business View Australia - March-April 2016 107
& AGED CARE
and safe environment is maintained
for all staff. Subsidised meals are
provided and this encourages them
to eat on the premises. Uniforms are
provided and each staff member is
proud to wear the specially designed
Medea Park uniform.
The future
Over the last few years, Medea Park
Residential Care has moved from
using agency staff to having its own
employees. This has resulted in a
higher level of care for residents.
Occupancy rates have gone up and the
facility has obtained full accreditation.
An application has been submitted
for funding of $ 3 million. If approval
is received more infrastructure will be
added.
It is proposed to take Medea Park
to 60 rooms, up from the current
55. The kitchen is also going to be
modernised. This will be done even
if external funding is not received.
The facility’s internal resources will
be used for the purpose if required.
Several rooms will be modernised.
There is a plan to build a dementia-
secure wing so that residents do not
require to be transferred to dementia-
secure environments elsewhere. This
is being done so that the full range
of services can be provided at Medea
Park.
Furthermore, the local council
has just acquired land where it is
proposed to build a new hospital. The
council is offering Medea Park three
acres in that health precinct. There
are plans to build a retirement village
or independent living units. That is on
the drawing board, it has not actually
been formalised as yet.
Ralf Mueller says, “We provide one
of the finest aged care services in
Tasmania. We provide nursing care
24-hours around the clock. For a
facility our size, we have a great
amount of expertise. We provide
benefits for our staff. We are slowly
but surely trying to grow Medea Park
into a larger organisation than we
have now.”