Assault case reported to police involving Northgate nursing home where Oakden residents were transferred

A REPORTED assault at an aged care centre where patients from the condemned Oakden facility were transferred is being investigated by police.

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A REPORTED assault at an aged care centre where patients from the condemned Oakden facility were transferred is being investigated by police.

SA Police has declined to provide key details about the incident, which was raised almost three weeks ago.

It is the first reported case of assault at the Northgate facility since residents moved there from the former Oakden nursing home in June, after revelations of systemic mistreatment.

Authorities are also investigating an assault which is understood to have happened at Oakden on March 13 but was reported to police in August.

A police spokesman confirmed the Northgate incident and said that it had been reported on December 8.

However, he would not say when it was alleged to have happened or whether a staff member was involved.

The incidents bring to five the total number of assaults at the Oakden and Northgate aged care homes currently under investigation by police.

Health Minister Peter Malinauskas said he could not comment on the specific allegations but stressed the standard of clinical care at Northgate was “very high”.

“Transparency and accountability measures are in place to ensure that any use of restraint is highly scrutinised,” he said.

“In this particular instance, protocol dictated that this incident be reported to SAPOL.”

The condemned Oakden mental health facility.

The Oakden facility was decommissioned and all patients moved to Northgate in September, five months after former Chief Psychiatrist Aaron Groves delivered a scathing report cataloguing a long history of abuse and neglect.

Clive Spriggs, whose father Bob Spriggs died after he was abused at Oakden, said news of the alleged Northgate assault was “a bit disturbing”.

“You would have thought with everything that’s happening there that it (abuse) wouldn’t reoccur,” he said.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander.

Former chief psychiatrist Aaron Groves.

Another relative of an Oakden victim, Stewart Johnston, said he feared the culture of cover up and neglect had been transferred to the new facility.

“We warned them the culture and the staff had to change, not just the building,” he said.

Staff who worked at Oakden were allowed to transfer to work at the Northgate home.

As revealed by The Advertiser in September, a 63-year-old Oakden staffer has been reported for assault but has yet to be formally charged or receive a summons to appear in court.

Police confirmed one investigation was scrapped due to a lack of evidence and three — including the two newest allegations — are still under investigation.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander is investigating what ministers and SA Health knew about conditions at Oakden after Dr Groves’ report revealed “seclusion, restraint and rough handling practices ... transported from (the) mid to late 20th century Glenside Hospital”.

SA Best leader Nick Xenophon.

Health Minister Peter Malinauskas.

It is unclear if Mr Lander’s report will be finalised by the state election on March 17, after huge volumes of information and delays in receiving it forced him to revise his initial six month timeline.

SA Best leader Nick Xenophon said the new incidents were “cloaked in secrecy” and “begged the question whether we’ve learnt any lessons from the Oakden scandal”.

“There must be openness about these incidents,” he said.

“We can’t improve the system unless we know what’s happening there.”

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said the assault allegation was “surprising” and the Government must say whether it involved staff transferred from Oakden.

“Even if it’s client on client (assault) it does raise questions about how the unit is operating,” he said.