Residential Care – Visitor and Outings Policy – (This updated policy applies from 9.00am Friday 5 April 2024)
Visiting continues as normal in all units under these conditions:
- Residents can have visits every day, 7 days a week.
- Rapid Antigen Testing for visitors is still required, but no longer on every entry. Visitors who attend 4 or more times in a week are asked to take a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) at least twice a week (on their first visit and then one more time only). Visitors who attend less than 4 times a week are asked to test on their first visit only.
- Wherever possible, visits should take place outside, so we can continue to reduce the risk of Covid positive relatives bringing it into a facility.
- If it is not feasible to have an outdoor visit, you may visit in the resident’s room but no more than 4 visitors can be in the room at a time.
- Normally visits need to take place between 9:00am and 5:30pm so that staff can respond to any requests for assistance with the check-in process. If entering after 5.30pm, you will need to ring the doorbell and wait for assistance.
- You will need to sign yourself in using the white check-in machine, and print a ticket for yourself and wear the ticket for your whole visit.
- You will not be able to go to any common areas inside the facility.
- First-time visitors: Any first-time visitors who have not used the check-in machine before should ring the doorbell for staff assistance. Staff will then arrange for setting up the new visitor’s details in the check-in machine and will check that the new visitor knows how to take a RAT and fit a surgical mask correctly. There is signage in place showing how to do this.
- While OLOC’s preference is that visitors who have returned from overseas in the last 7 days do not visit, if such a visit does take place, the visitor must be symptom free, must have had a negative RAT test since returning to Australia, and provide evidence of the negative test result on entry.
Same Day Outings
If a family member wants to take a resident out, then you can, as long as you and the resident are both comfortable with the planned outing.
OLOC Bus Outings
- All OLOC Bus Outings will be risk assessed beforehand, and residents will be given a normal surgical mask while on the bus for all outings which they can wear if they choose.
- It is strongly recommended that residents on shopping trips keep wearing the surgical mask while inside shops, malls or any crowded spaces at all times.
- Visits to pubs and clubs will be limited to private rooms or an outdoor area wherever possible, and it remains strongly recommended that residents wear a surgical mask while indoors at pubs or clubs except while eating.
Government Advice
- OLOC continues to strongly encourages all visitors, residents and staff to continue receiving all new COVID-19 vaccine booster doses as soon as they become eligible, regardless of the number of doses received previously. This is in line with the advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI) .
We will continue to review this visiting plan at least fortnightly.