Presbyterian Care welcomes discussions with the Department of Health and Human
Services for the not-for-profit provider to administer the 29 residential aged care beds
currently provided at the James Scott Wing of the North East Soldiers Memorial Hospital
(NESMH).

In May this year, this not-for-profit provider of aged care services entered a Heads of
Agreement to operate the 31 bed Aminya Hostel which is collocated at NESMH site and at
the time made it clear it wished to expand its services in the Dorset area.

Chief Executive Officer of Presbyterian Care, Robin Philps said since taking over operations
at Aminya, it became clear that there were many synergies that could be gained if the two
operations worked closer together.

“With an ageing population, aged care is a growth industry and as the provision of these
services is at the core of our mission, Presbyterian Care has been growing its services for a
number of years,” Mr Philps said.

“In addition there were synergies provided by bringing the two facilities closer together.
Conventional aged care wisdom says it is very difficult for facilities with less than 60 beds to
remain viable under the current funding regime.

“So, by bringing the 29 aged care beds at James Scott together with the now 32 beds at
Aminya, the provision of aged care services in Scottsdale will have a strong future,” Mr
Philps said.

Mr Philps said Presbyterian Care had been welcomed by the Scottsdale community and in
particular the staff, residents, family and friends of Aminya and he looked forward to working
with everybody at James Scott.

“It is our aim to offer those staff at James Scott that want employment with us, a job and we
hope for residents there will be very little change in the excellent care that they recieve,” Mr
Philps said.

“In aged care, our biggest asset is our staff and we look forward to the staff at James Scott
becoming members of our team in the near future.”

Mr Philps said his organisation had invested $100,000 in improvements at Aminya and
created an additional bed since taking over operations and Presbyterian Care was likely to
do the same at James Scott.

“While it is early days and there are still negotiations to be undertaken, I can say it is likely
that we will invest a significant amount of capital as part of an improvement program for
James Scott,” Mr Philps said.

Presbyterian Care Tasmania is based in Launceston and has a long track record in the
provision of aged care services. It currently operates some 319 residential high and low care
beds at facilities in Legana, Norwood and Hobart as well as operating a large retirement
village and community care service for a further 48 people.
Presbyterian Care Tasmania