Millicent’s largest nursing home had a large staff turnover in the past 12 months with more than a third leaving Boneham Aged Care Services.

There were 46 resignations between September 2020 and this month.

There are 143 staff who care for 110 residents at the Williams Road facility.

While acknowledging the difficulty in attracting and retaining staff, Boneham chief executive Michael Filsell said the turnover at Millicent was in line with recent findings of the national workforce survey of aged care facilities.

Mr Filsell said there were numerous reasons for the resignations such as vaccination requirements and the pursuit of other work opportunities.

“We currently have 10/15 part-time vacancies at Boneham,” Mr Filsell said.

“We are using agency staff from Adelaide.

“Due to COVID, the migration programs have slowed and this is where aged care facilities from around Australia had recruited staff.

“We are making traineeships available,” Mr Filsell said.

Mr Filsell has recently made a face-to-face appeal to potential staff.

Wattle Range Council and Regional Development Australia arranged for the Future Health Care Workers Limestone Coast Tour to hold a Millicent information session for the 50 travelling students from Adelaide.  The Boneham chief was among the presenters.

“Presentations around healthcare jobs in the local area were conducted with a great deal of enthusiasm,” Mr Filsell said.

“Here’s hoping some future careers are secured in Millicent with a big thank you to all involved.”

In other Boneham news, Mr Filsell said that it had now achieved 100% COVID-19 vaccination of its staff members, volunteers and allied health contractors. 

“We thank all of our dedicated staff for achieving this outstanding result so quickly. With resident vaccinations in the high 90% currently, we have some certainty that we are as prepared as we can be for potential future outbreaks.”