Royal Freemasons Gregory Lodge

My mum Renee lived at Gregory Lodge for the final fifteen months of her life. I found the staff lovely. It took a while for my mum to settle in and get to know all the staff. Unlike a previous review I certainly was not of the impression that the staff were Agency Staff. Because I was going to the facility most days to visit mum I got to know a lot of the staff and I found them lovely, friendly and helpful. Initially as the staff were getting to know mum things went wrong however I always found all the staff willing to listen and excellent at putting in systems so initial mistakes weren't continued or repeated. The Manager was ALWAYS available to speak to. He then she invited me into the Manager's Office for me to discuss any issues in private. They also acknowledged the things that had gone wrong and certainly didn't deny them. The staff from Kay at Reception, both Managers, the Medication staff, the front line care workers, the Activities staff, the Physiotherapist, Andrew, the Kitchen staff, the finance staff, Samuel and the daily Clinical Managers were always friendly, respectful, kind and helpful. Now that my mum has passed away I will really miss MY LOVELY MUM and going to Gregory Lodge to see mum and the staff I encountered each visit. I would highly recommend Gregory Lodge to anyone looking for accommodation for a parent. When I was initially looking for a nursing home for my mum some places I visited really distressed me and I couldn't get away from them fast enough. There were certainly days that I sat in my car crying. From my first contact with staffs at Gregory Lodge 'til the last I found everyone helpful, kind, respectful and professional. I highly recommend this facility to anyone. I got to know a lot of the permanent residents and their visitors and I found them all to be lovely people. I was very happy that they were the peoples mum was living with.

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I'm writing this review only based on the first impression from having toured the facility. In pictures, the place looks stunning (and has a high pricetag to match) however when I visited, I was less impressed, as the staff appeared to be casuals from labor hire companies, and the place had a strong smell of perfumed deoderiser throughout.

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Leaving your home to enter an aged care facility, unless you can pay an absolute fortune, automatically strips you of privacy and respect. Im our mother's case, she was sound of mind but confined to a wheel chair which left her dependent on others for the basic care. Coupled with that was her sense of isolation as many others in the home did not have their full mental facilties and she would often choose to stay in her room than attend in of the activities organised within the home, as she found it depressing surrounded by absent bodies. As in the case with us, families are often faced with the choice of moving a parent away from their friends to be nearer to family which can increase the sense of isolation. Staff are often over worked, underpaid and not appreciated and this means that many, including our mother, can be left waiting to be attended to, in the most personal of context's, whilst staff attend other calls, which is humiliating and again, increases depression and high lights lack of independence.

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Caters are thoughtful and attentive , making my mothers last days comfortable

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Upon inspecting this facility for my father who being, 83 years old, me and my wife have decided to place into an aged care facility. Our impressions were satisfactory. The location of this facility seems to be quite convenient, just off racecourse road in Flemington, and very close to a shopping district. This last point would be better suited if residents were more freely allowed to travel to and fro the shopping district (as my father is somewhat more agile and independent than other residents), but it was noted that planned trips are regularly taken with the residents. The buildings and associated gardens are quite pretty from the outside, but upon inspection of individual rooms, they are considerably plain but DO have private en suites for each room. The activity calendar had a redeeming quality as I thought it offered quite a bit of variety and programs that my father would actually enjoy namely the gardening activities and day trips. The nursing staff looked and felt very nice and friendly, and upon questioning, found that the majority were full time staff agency staff were used only to fill short term vacancies (what this means is anyone’s guess) Overall I thought this facility was quite nice for the price range (somewhat middle range), and after inspecting other facilities, we might consider this as a residence for my father.

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