Tenterfield Care Officially Opens 28 New Aged Care Beds

The opening today of 28 new aged care beds at Tenterfield Care’s Haddington Aged Care Community is a significant milestone for the New England community, and one of many investments by Apollo Care to enhance its Haddington and Millrace aged care communities.

Stephen Becsi OAM, CEO of Apollo Care, says: “We’re thrilled to fulfil the promise we made to locals to complete this new extension when we became the Approved Provider in November 2023. But our commitment hasn’t stopped there; we’ve also made significant investments in infrastructure, workforce, care and culture.”

“We’ve deployed cutting-edge technology and programs to enhance resident care, staff wellbeing and operational efficiencies; spent over $1 million providing affordable housing for workers; and have plans underway to enhance Haddington’s existing rooms and Millrace’s common areas.”

“We’re committed to ensuring the financial sustainability of Tenterfield Care and we’re pleased to report that the operating performance of the organisation has improved by 60% in just 12 months.”

Speaking today, the Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce MP, said: “Given regional Australia is facing significant aged care bed closures, and more than 50 per cent of aged care communities are operating at a loss, Tenterfield Care is a terrific success story.”

“We know that Australia’s population is ageing, and our region is no different. Almost a quarter of Tenterfield’s population is aged over 70, so we need to ensure we have good aged care communities and good operators in our region.”

TCC Board Member and Deputy Mayor of Tenterfield, Greg Sauer, agrees: “We’re thrilled to see TCC’s transformation following a few tumultuous years when it was operating with significant losses. To expand from 82 beds a year ago to 110 today is phenomenal, and there’s so much happening behind the scenes to cement a positive future for Tenterfield Care and its residents and staff.

“Apollo Care has brought the financial and operational expertise we needed, while delivering on its promise to ensure TCC remains true to its community roots and values.”

This renaissance is being facilitated by the new Residential Service Manager, Sunita Sharma, who came on board in September 2024.

“The high-level support I receive from Apollo Care’s team of industry experts means I have more time to focus on making our two communities even better places to live and work. I’m also lucky to be part of an amazing team of committed and caring workers.”

“We’ve now implemented Apollo Care’s best-practice quality management system, an award-winning employee wellbeing program, and a cutting-edge cloud-based IT platform that allowed us to introduce mobile care devices for every care worker as well as new software to enhance each residents’ meal ordering experience.”

Stephen Becsi says all the hard work is paying off, particularly in addressing the sector’s biggest challenge: workforce.

“We’ve directly recruited 17 Registered Nurses, Internationally Qualified Nurses and Personal Care Workers, plus we’ve optimised rosters. This has reduced the use of agency staff from 55% to 20%, providing residents with greater continuity of carers, and significantly reduced costs.”

“I’m projecting roster vacancies will be close to zero by January 2025,” says Sunita Sharma, “which is a massive reduction from 41% a year ago.”

“This is a win for the Tenterfield community and the continuation of a terrific 35-year success story,” says Barnaby Joyce MP.

“I’ve long been committed to helping the people of New England to age well in our wonderful region, and these 28 new beds will enable them to do just that.”

Apollo Care gratefully acknowledges the contribution of a capital grant to this project by The Department of Health & Aged Care.

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