Radius Residential Care

Dear Residents, Families and Friends,

I visited Christchurch again this week, Wednesday 2nd March and provide the following update:

St Winifred's: St Winifred's have a few more cracks in some areas, none of which are structural.

The facility is running at full capacity with water, electricity, sewerage and a full staff compliment. Some staff have had difficulties in getting to work as a result of the location of their homes, the status of their homes or simply crossing town through the cordoned area. We have been assisting with this process and have been running and internal bureau among our three sites to ensure that we are staffing with full staff compliments.

St Helena's: St Helena's is in Barbadoes Street and is within the cordoned off area. The building itself has sustained virtually no damage as a result of the earthquake or any aftershocks subsequent.

The facility is operating with full services, electricity, water and sewerage are all operating as normal. We also have a full staff compliment at St Helena's.

There is difficulty in reaching the facility as it necessitates entering the cordoned off area. This area has had increasing security in the last week or so and has resulted in some staff being held at the checkpoints whilst their identities are verified and in some cases the Manager has had to leave the facility and come up to get the staff and to debate with the cordon patrols in order to get staff through. These issues are relatively minor given the extent of the damage in Christchurch. Staff are fully aware of the need to carry ID forms at all times and this added security has not affected our ability to provide high level care.

Despite being in the central city area, St Helena's has come out of the earthquake unscathed and for all intents and purposes is operating as normal.

St Ives: St Ives borders Vogel Street and River Road. River Road was extensively damaged in the quake and the wing nearest River Road has been damaged at this facility. On the day of the quake, residents were moved from that wing and have since been relocated to other facilities. All family members have been contacted to advise them of this move.

St Ives has limited water supply, electricity and sewerage services. The city council are continuing to work on the water supply issue and advise that we can expect full water supply to be reinstated as soon as repairs are completed. The difficulty with the water supply is that the main supply it runs alongside River Road and they are repairing damaged pipes as they come upon the damaged areas one, at a time, slowly moving towards our facility. The facility had three feeds that were capped on Vogel Street, they have been re-commissioned to provide the facility with water until the main River Road connection is restored. All staff and all residents are in good spirits and being well cared for.

I will be visiting Christchurch again next week and if the situation has changed again in any way I will update this report. Should you have any queries or wish to obtain additional information about a friend or family member, please don't hesitate to call us.

Regards,

Brien Cree