Lyndoch Living chief executive officer Doreen Power said she “absolutely” welcomed the federal government’s move.

“I’m hoping we learn from it. Take it as a positive, not a negative. Let’s move forward,” she said.

“Anything that can be gleaned out of the royal commission we’ll take on board.”

The federal government has called a royal commission into the industry following ongoing reports of elder abuse. Particular concerns include staff-to-patient ratios, the extent of training needed to work in the sector, and the quality of food provided to residents.

Ms Power said it was “really difficult” to hear stories of poor treatment in aged care.

“My concern with all the media coverage of what is going on is that there are good institutions out there. People will get scared. Someone said to me today that they never worried about going into aged care because they thought it was safe, now they’re a bit concerned. The damage being done to the normal person is actually quite sad really,” she said.

“It’s damaging our sector. I’m very proud of Lyndoch, our staff and our community engagement. We’ve opened the doors of Lyndoch to the community. You only have to hear some of the projects that we have on the go… that’s about living and living well.

Lyndoch has 198 residential aged care beds and 480 staff.

Lyndoch director of nursing Julie Baillie said as a public sector organisation, it already had staff-to-patient ratios in place.

“Lyndoch Living do attract public sector funding, so as a result we do comply with the Safe Patient Care Act,” she said.

As stated in the act, Ms Baillie said Lyndoch provided one staff member per seven residents in the morning,one per eight in the afternoon and one per 15 overnight.

“Obviously, there is always workforce issues... I don’t think it’s changed since I started nursing over 20 years ago,” she said.

“There’s always issues with workforce and having the most appropriately qualified and trained people.”

Ms Baillie said a partnership with South West TAFE ensured personal care workers would receive on-site training to ensure they were work ready.

“I’m aware of some of the comments around courses for personal care workers being six weeks. I think they might be New South Wales courses, I’m not aware of any in Victoria like that,” she said.

“We do placement and we actively encourage people to up-skill.”

Ms Baillie said more funding for aged care was always welcome.

“It makes you really cross when you see the prison sector gets more per prisoner and better conditions than aged care,” she said.

Gillin Park Retirement Village manager Narelle Cook said its parent company, Stockland, the nation’s third largest retirement village operator, was “very much at the opposite end of the scale” to many of the issues coming forward. 

She said she was looking forward to positive outcomes from the major inquiry.

“It's going to get the not-so-good operators out,” Ms Cook said.

It’s expected the royal commission will cost around $75 million but the government is yet to settle on terms of reference.