The official report reveals that Glendale Aged care, owned by Allity Pty Ltd, breached infection control guidelines four months after battling a COVID-19 outbreak that infected 25 residents and 18 staff, killing three residents including 90-year-old resident Alf Jordan in July.The nursing home escaped an ACQSC sanction after agreeing to “ensure there is ongoing and effective monitoring of staff practice in PPE use’’.A Glendale Aged Care spokeswoman said the home had “put in place several measures to strengthen its infection control system’’ following the audit.The home has appointed a “nurse adviser’’ to oversee infection control measures, as well as three “infection control officers’’ trained in the federal government’s infection prevention and control program.The spokeswoman said all staff had been given mandatory infection control training – including hand hygiene and donning and doffing of PPE.“The COVID pandemic has taught us all how critical it is to prevent infection from entering aged care homes,’’ she told the Herald Sun.At St Basil’s home in Fawkner, where 45 residents died of COVID-19 last year, a follow-up audit in July found that staff were not changing gloves as required and did not have a pandemic management plan “complete in readiness for future outbreaks’’.The ACQSC found that PPE had “not been replenished’’ at the Presbyterian Church-owned Kirkbrae Kilsyth Hostel during an audit last October.Inspectors “observed more than one staff member touching their face mask and not performing hand hygiene before moving onto other tasks,’’ the report says.
The Glenlyn Aged Care Facility in Glenroy was banned from admitting new residents after failing an audit in August.“Following the recent COVID-19 outbreak the service was unable to demonstrate effective staff practice in the use of personal protective equipment, hand hygiene and other prevention strategies,’’ the audit report states.The home told inspectors it had trained kitchen staff on using PPE and issued a memo to nurses and care staff about hand hygiene and the proper use of gloves.In a statement to the Herald Sun, Glenlyn management said that many residents had “challenging psychiatric conditions and behaviours’’.“In the case of COVID-19, because consumers cannot be restrained and … despite continuous prompting from staff, did not understand the need for isolation or social distancing, this made our ability to restrict their activities and strongly encourage practices like hand hygiene difficult,’’ it said.The St Basil’s and Kirkbrae homes did not respond to requests for comment.A federal Health Department spokesman said that aged care providers “have a responsibility to ensure infection protocols are followed’’.“Providers are responsible for ensuring staff have the necessary training, including in infection prevention and control practices, including the appropriate use of PPE,’’ he said.“Providers are aware that should they require access to PPE, due to difficulty sourcing privately, the Australian Government’s national medical stockpile can rapidly arrange for distribution.’’Federal Health Department data shows that COVID-19 infected 1988 nursing home residents in Victoria last year, killing 655.‘SHE DIED BECAUSE SHE WAS NEGLECTED’Nancy Tullio doesn’t want to utter the word she uses to describe those behind Epping Gardens aged care home.That was where her mum Concetta Mineo, 89, was supposed to be safe – but instead she caught Covid-19 and died amid the second wave that swept through Melbourne, and in particular, its aged care homes.“I shouldn’t say what I really think and use the word that I want to, but that is what I feel,” Mrs Tullio said.She can’t understand how a follow up audit after the virus outbreak at Epping Gardens, where 38 died, detected deficiencies in personal and clinical care.“How can that happen and how can they be let away with it?” she asked.
“My mother was one of those who passed away and she was not ready to die at that time. We all have to die at some stage, but my mother was not ready – not then.”Mrs Tullio said her mother died “because she was neglected”.“Neglected to the point they didn’t have the staff to care for them, they were just left in a room, some of them had dementia and didn’t know what was going on. This is why a lot of them lost the will to live.”What troubled her was how people who ran the aged care homes could not know this, and why it was still happening.“Who doesn’t know this? These people that study all these things, like doctors and lawyers, how could they possibly let them still work?”“It’s wrong, one hundred per cent wrong. I don’t know how they are not stopped. They should put their loved ones in there.”She said anywhere that was found to be deficient should be shut down and banned from reopening until it could be proven it could be done safely.Her son Mark Tullio said there needed to be better controls in place.“Who police’s this? Whoever it is meant to be, needs to make sure there are protocols in place and they are being followed.”He said if his family had known what was happening, they would have taken his grandmother out of there.“We didn’t catch on to that, but we would have moved her.”‘THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY’RE DOING’There will only be changes to the aged care system when someone in power experiences the tragedy many Victorian families have, a grieving daughter says.Melbourne woman Kathy Bourinaris said the aged care system was “an absolute shambles”.Her mum Fotini Atzarakis, 77, caught the virus at St Basil’s aged care facility and died at the Austin Hospital after a 10-day battle.She doubted whether anyone would ever be held to account for what went wrong.“WorkSafe are doing an investigation, but I don’t know if we will get much of a result. It could end up just being a slapped hand.”Ms Bourinaris said St Basil’s were still operating with the same staff. “We don’t even know if they’ve been retrained, or if there is a Covid plan – we know nothing, zero.”
In a further blow to the family, a St Basil’s staff member contacted her family weeks after her mum died, to ask them if they wanted to take a tour of the facility.“They have no idea what they’re doing… they’re disgusting, they’re not professional. I think it’s just all ‘tick the boxes and go home’.”Ms Bourinaris said it was one thing to lose your mum in the way she did, and another to hear the claims mistakes had not been rectified.“They say they have tried to fix things up, but it has been one negative thing after another.”St Basil’s was threatened with sanctions in July 2020 after 45 residents died of COVID-19 and an audit revealed failures in personal and clinical care and it was banned from admitting new residents until risks were addressed.It highlighted staff practices that were unsafe.The audit report states: “… staff are not changing their gloves following general activities and interactions with consumers. The service did not demonstrate that the outbreak management plan and folders were fully prepared and complete in readiness for future outbreaks of COVID-19”.
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