At Alert Level 4 all Ryman Healthcare villages are closed to visitors. The only exception is visits to residents in palliative or end-of-life care.
“There are full infection control procedures in place, our staff are wearing face shields and N95 masks and caring for residents in bubbles,” David King, who is Ryman Healthcare’s Corporate Affairs Manager, said.
“A total of 87 per cent of our residents have had vaccinations and 83 per cent of our staff currently have had vaccinations with the figure expected to be 90 per cent by the end of this week.”
Ryman Healthcare has increased staff pay by $2 an hour in New Zealand while the country is in lockdown as a thank you. Staff members also get free meals at work and are changing into their uniforms on site as an extra safeguard.
“We have good experience from more than 200 days in lockdown in Victoria about the best precautions and the double reassurance of N95 masks and face shields has worked well. We have not had a single case of Covid-19 in Victoria,” said King.
Zoom calls and activities programmes continue within the bubbles to keep everyone entertained.
Ryman has been running a large vaccination programme since April and more than 28,000 vaccines have been delivered.
It is running additional clinics to vaccinate the remaining people. Ryman has 50 trained vaccination nurses who have also been carrying out vaccine programmes for other retirement care operators and DHBs.
“Since April 2020 taking part in our vaccination programme has been a requirement in our employment agreements,” King said.
Relatives are being encouraged to drop any essential items at the village gates.
“Our team deliver anything any residents need and they have 24-hour help at hand,” he said.
In the Auckland and Wellington regions the Student Volunteer Army has been enlisted to shop for residents staying at home.
Ryman Healthcare is New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator. They have 43 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia. Ryman villages are home to 12,750 residents, and the company employs 6300 staff.
