TriCare Ashgrove Aged Care Residence - Ashgrove, Queensland

Jon D.

Unfortunately, this feedback echoes the experiences of a number of others whose loved ones were ‘cared for’ by TriCare Ashgrove. Our (now deceased) father, had a Level 4 Home Care package, but required additional care for what was anticipated to be a short period due to reduced mobility as a result of an adverse reaction to chemotherapy (to treat lymphoma). Given that the Federal government MyAgedCare package made provision for Respite Care, we inspected the new Ashgrove TriCare facility and were very impressed, as I suspect most people would be!

Consequently, we made arrangements for dad to reside there for a month while modifications were made to his home. As noted by others, the daily cost included an additional levy, but we concluded it would be worth the money if it meant he would be well cared for in a modern aged care facility (the additional cost, after government funding, was a bit over $3K for 28 days).

While we appreciated that the personal and clinical care staff employed by TriCare were generally empathetic and capable, it became evident that they were very short staffed…. and on one (by far the worst) occasion dad was left in the toilet for for over 30 minutes before staff responded to his calls (using the buzzer) for assistance. Like other family members, we quickly learnt to take on the personal care role ourselves when visiting …. but this was obviously only possible for the 2-4 hours that that family we were there most days.

Unfortunately, our father’s health declined and given the challenges with care, he was transferred to a hospital less than a week after commencing the anticipated 4 week period of respite care. He passed away in hospital on 25 July 2024.

Sadly, this was when the next challenge began, this time with TriCare’s financial services team (based at Mt Gravatt), to recover the $2949 of credit in his account. Every month, for the last 4-5 months, they emailed a credit statement and every month we phoned them to request that the money be returned. We never managed to speak to anybody, but left many phone messages, which were never returned. We also phoned and left a message with Wendy, the Ashgrove facility manager, hoping that she might have a better line of communication with the financial team, but didn’t get a response to that call either. We’ve also sent emails …. still no response, so now realise that we’ll need to escalate the issue to the aged care ombudsman/complaints mechanism.

So, the key observations and learnings from our experience, for others considering to engage TriCare:

- They are poorly equipped to assist people with mobility impairments
- They are very short staffed, and struggle to respond to calls for assistance (in the event of a serious life/death issue, the response time is unlikely to be adequate)
- Be prepared, like others who’ve left feedback, to encounter challenges recovering credit (TriCare is proactive and quick to request payment, but infuriatingly difficult to contact when they owe you money!). I guess this experience might explain why the family, who own the TriCare business, are reportedly one of the wealthiest in the country…

Please take care …. don’t be ‘bedazzled’, like we were, with the modern new facility. An older (cheaper) adequately resourced care facility would be a much better option….

Sarah W.

My mother is there.
Nice surroundings, nice room.
Massive bond (900,000).
BUT
Very short staffed
Hard to get in if you don't possess a fob as no one sits out there in reception on weekends.
Food does NOT look like their advertisement.
My mother has hardly any contact with staff as there are hardly any around.
I'm going to quit working to care for her there.
You almost need to pay an independent nurse to go up and care for your family member if you can't go up everyday!!!!
My mother has deteriorated since being admitted there.
It makes me cry.

as they run with such a high patient lo

logan B.

The only reason iv even given 1 start is becouse the facility itself is new and moden. This is the reason we chose this facility for our Nan who went in under a respite plan to make her remaining time as comfortable as possible. The facility is very expensive which we were happy to pay thinking in return not only would nan be in a new moden facility but would have top notch care from the staff (which when we originally inspected prior to moving her in was one of the main concerns we expressed and were reassured by the facility Manger Wendy that attending to patients when they required help and being on call to residents was of top priority and there was set guidelines that if staff were not attending to residents within the certain set time lines reports were sent to the upper management and appropriate action would be taken to rectify and speed up responses)

As we found after a few days of nan being at the facility and attending every afternoon to check in on her the facility is extremely short staffed. Time and time again nan sat for over 10 minutes by herself after pressing the buzzer for help unattended and unfortunately a few of these times led to her being unable to hold to go to the toilet and having to sit in her own bodily fluids until someone eventually showed up. For my nan who was a proud, independent woman this was devastating for her and embarrassing. A few times I actually had to go looking myself to even find a staff member to assist with simple requests like sourcing nan a heat pack for her back or assisting me to move her out of bed and into a chair, then would be told they "will be there shortly" only to return to nan's room, wait 10 min then have to go looking again for a staff member to help. I remember at one stage requesting some ice for nan's water to be told "we don't have any". For a $1500 a week fee for respite I did not think sourcing some ice for my nan in her last days would be to much to ask for.

Unfortunately my nan passed away after being in the facility for a bit over a week and looking back now I honestly think the lack of assistance from staff and the constant humiliation of having accidents in the bed becouse no one attended to her soon enough and a just general lack of care led to her loosing the will to live. Just to add to this on the day nan passed unfortunately I was not there but her brother was in the room and upon her passing, her brother pressed the buzzer for help. As normal he sat for 15 minutes! before anyone appeared to help which as you can imagine was extremely distressing for him.

In the days leading up to nan's passing I did reach out to the facility Manger via email as she would not be there when i attended after work to visit to express my concern about the lack of care nan was receiving. To this date I have still not received a reply.

Lastly just to add to the frustration of this facility it has now been over 3 months since nan passed and we are STILL waiting for Tri care to refund the remaining credit in payments that were made in advance payments to get nan in to the facility. We have reached out muiltiple times to Wendy the facility manager and upper management and keep getting told the money will be refunded "very soon".

BE WARNED, this facility appears beautiful appon inspection and the facility Manger says all the right things however from our experience unless you are fully independent and can care for yourself I WOULD NOT recommend this facility to anyone who requires care especially palliative care which we were told this facility can and would provide as our nan's health deteriorated. Also they are very quick to take your money but very very slow to give any back.

Huge improvements needed mainly around staffing to bring this facility up to a standard you would expect for such a high end price tag that goes with it.

Alex

Extremely understaffed and impossible to enter or leave when visiting. You have to wait 10 minutes or call multiple times to get in and then hunt down staff to leave. Lobby is never attended, hot water is always broken, has no phone reception, has barely working landlines and is honestly extremely disappointing. Don’t let the new shiny building fool you. A nice new building is worthless with no staff to run it or care for the residents.

colleen B.

I am over from Auckland to visit my sister who is unwell ...I cannot praise TRICARE enough. .... the staff go beyond their duty ...I am so pleased my sister Bobbie is here ... thank you TRICARE ashgrove