Ryman Healthcare moves to keep villages COVID-free inviting staff to move in

Ryman Healthcare, which operates two retirement villages with aged care centres in the city's southeast, took the step as the number of cases of the virus at aged care facilities in Melbourne began to skyrocket.

Ryman's regional manager Eileen Kietly said more than a dozen staff members at its Nellie Melba and Weary Dunlop villages had already taken up the free offer, with more expected to follow.

"Keeping our staff safe is absolutely crucial to keeping our residents safe, so this just makes sense. No measure is too extreme or too expensive when it comes to resident safety," she said.

It was a "huge commitment" by the staff members to move into the villages, and showed how much they cared about their residents' safety.

"From the very outset of COVID-19 our goal has been to make our villages safe havens for our residents and staff, and that's guided everything we do," Ms Kietly said.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton applauded Ryman's move as a positive step towards improving the situation in aged care, which has been devastated by the virus.

"Having staff [living] onsite is absolutely an innovation to the extent that it limits their interaction with other community members," Prof Sutton said.

Nellie Melba Retirement Village personal care assistant Rosie Butler said she moved into the village about three weeks ago, and she had not stepped outside since.

"I have a family member who works in an emergency department. The risk was just too great, so I knew moving into the village was what I needed to do," she said.

While Ms Butler would be unable to see her partner for the remainder of the lockdown, she did not regret her decision.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would do anything for my residents because they are like family," she said.

Nellie Melba personal care worker Kim Buere said not only was she enjoying being able to roll out of bed just five minutes before a shift, she had been overcome by the response to her move.

"That has been the loveliest part, the huge thanks from residents for what we have done," she said.

"I feel so blessed that I applied for a job with this company because I am speaking with friends who work for other providers and they have only started wearing masks in the past month and that is something we have been doing for months and months.

"Everyone is going above and beyond to keep the village safe and the residents are honoured by it," Ms Buere said.

Ms Kietly said the initiative was just one in a raft of measures, including delivering groceries to residents and closing the villages to visitors, employed by the company to help keep COVID-19 out.

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