ICAC report: Oakden aged-care home resembled a prison but ministers, health bosses didn’t intervene
THE Oakden aged-care home resembled a “depressing” prison where elderly South Australians were left in “shameful” conditions — but ministers and senior health bosses did nothing to intervene.
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READ BELOW: Jay should resign — Greg Hunt
READ BELOW: Secrecy ‘almost entire political’
THE Oakden aged-care home resembled a “depressing” prison where elderly South Australians were left in “shameful” conditions — but ministers and senior health bosses did nothing to intervene.
These are the damning findings of the state’s corruption watchdog following an inquiry into the condemned facility in Adelaide’s north.
Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander found a group of five former Oakden staff and health system managers guilty of maladministration, as well as the broader Northern Adelaide Local Health Network.
Only one individual is believed to still be working for SA Health.
Mr Lander QC savaged the conduct of former mental health minister Leesa Vlahos — one of three people who attempted to prevent him publishing their names in his 456-page report.
He stopped short of finding any minister guilty of maladministration but made “a number of adverse findings” related to Ms Vlahos, who resigned as minister last year citing “health reasons”.
Mr Lander said it was “astonishing” that ministers and chief executives were unaware of what was occurring at the older persons mental health facility and “they ought to have known”.
He also blasted the Labor Government’s insistence that ICAC hearings be held in secret as “almost entirely political” and “designed to limit the damage that might ensue when its own conduct and processes are subject to scrutiny in public”.
The scathing report, delivered just more than a fortnight before the state election, makes 13 recommendations for change.
Premier Jay Weatherill did not release the Government’s formal response on Wednesday, saying he would first consult family members of former Oakden residents.
Their loved ones were subjected to over-medication, inappropriate restraints and other mistreatment by staff.
Mr Lander said “every South Australian should be outraged” by how vulnerable people were treated at Oakden.
“It represents a shameful chapter in this state’s history,” his report states.
“The extent to which senior persons in positions of authority outside of the Oakden facility did not know about what was occurring ... was breathtaking. A culture of secrecy developed. Opportunities for intervention were missed. The facility was depressing. (It) resembled a prison.”
Mr Lander considered 350,000 pages of evidence but said he was “not given access to Cabinet documents, despite requesting them”.
He particularly criticised Ms Vlahos’s handling of the evolving “crisis” while she was the minister responsible.
“She did not lead in addressing the crisis. She followed. Mrs Vlahos sought to deflect responsibility,” he said.
Mr Lander named Northern Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive officer Jackie Hanson as “the only person who took positive action upon becoming aware of the true state of affairs at the Oakden facility”.
“I think Mrs Vlahos has been saved from a finding of maladministration by Ms Hanson’s actions,” he writes, adding that it was Ms Hanson who commissioned the review by Chief Psychiatrist Aaron Groves which formally exposed abuses at Oakden.
Ms Hanson has since quit for a new role in Queensland.
Mr Lander said Mr Groves played a key role in uncovering the abuse but should have made unannounced visits to Oakden before complaints were raised with him in 2016.
Responding to Mr Lander’s report, Mr Weatherill said he was “deeply sorry” for what had occurred.
“There’s no relief here, it’s just all shame,” he said.
He argued ministers “should have been told” about the extent of the problems and would have acted if they knew.
While the government accepted “full responsibility for the fact that it happened in a state-run institution”, Mr Weatherill argued there were “extraordinary layers of supervision” below ministerial level, which should have enabled concerns to be elevated to a minister.
He would not say how much taxpayer money was spent on legal representation for Ms Vlahos during the ICAC investigation.
He described her attempt to keep her name out of the published report as “completely inappropriate”.
Asked how the report might influence voters’ ahead of the election, Mr Weatherill declared: “What people will be looking at is how we respond.”
Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said the report revealed that Mr Weatherill had “run a protection racket” for his ministers.
“Labor has failed our most vulnerable citizens,” he said.
KEY ASPECTS OF THE REPORT
Leesa Vlahos:
“She was sometimes belligerent and aggressive. At other times she was sullen and surly. There were times while giving evidence when she became angry and on occasions she shouted at me. She was evasive in many of her answers and she frequently did not address the questions asked of her. She blamed others for mistakes or failings whenever and wherever possible. Much of her evidence was inherently inconsistent.”
Having to hold his inquiry in secret:
“In my opinion, the Government’s reasons for requiring these investigations to be in private are almost entirely political and are designed to limit the damage that might ensue when its own conduct and processes are subject to scrutiny in public.”
Ministerial responsibility:
“A minister does not need to resign for failings which occurred within the minister’s department or portfolio without the minister’s knowledge. Some may find that to be at odds with their own view as to ministerial responsibility.”
Delays to his inquiry:
“The investigation took longer than I had hoped. Both the volume of material received and the time taken to review it exceeded my initial expectations and ... it caused a significant delay to my investigation. I suspect that those tasked with compiling documents in answer to the summonses had a far more difficult job because the relevant documents were poorly indexed, ordered and stored to begin with.”
Documents in evidence:
“In all, more than 350,000 pages of information was received. I was not given access to Cabinet documents despite requesting them. My investigation and this report has been completed without the benefit of seeing those documents — if any existed.”
Barb Spriggs, whose husband Bob died after mistreatment at Oakden:
“There is no doubt that Mrs Spriggs was the catalyst that brought the Oakden facility to the attention of the persons who ought to have known about the facility and the standard of care that was provided there. It was Mrs Spriggs’ perseverance that brought about the commissioning of the Oakden Report and the consequences that followed from that report.”
— with Daniel Wills and Adam Langenberg
A DISGRACE AND JAY SHOULD QUIT — HUNT
By Sheradyn Holderhead
FEDERAL Health Minister Greg Hunt has labelled the Oakden scandal “one of the great disgraces in Australian mental healthcare history” and called for the Premier’s head.
“The Premier should resign and the government should be turfed out,” he told federal Parliament.
Attorney-General Christian Porter highlighted former SA Health Minister Jack Snelling’s evidence that there was no political will to privatise the facility in a bid to avoid an argument with the unions.
“This is a report of some of the most horrendous treatment of older Australians and a primary reason given why there was no reform was to avoid an argument with the unions,” Mr Porter said.
Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt welcomed Bruce Lander’s “comprehensive” report and its recommendations to improve governance, accountability, reduce restrictive practices and guard against this ever happening again.
“What happened inside Oakden was shameful and shocking and the Turnbull Government continues to be committed at the Commonwealth level to ensuring the situation is never repeated,” he said.
SECRECY ‘ALMOST ENTIRELY POLITICAL’
By Lauren Novak
THE state’s corruption watchdog has renewed his call for the right to hold some open hearings so the public can “see the evidence unfold”.
Bruce Lander QC has used his report into maladministration at the Oakden aged care home to again call for changes to secrecy provisions that limit his powers.
The Independent Commissioner Against Corruption has criticised the Labor Government for refusing to ease those provisions.
In a scathing assessment he has argued its stance is “almost entirely political” and “designed to limit the damage that might ensue” from public scrutiny. “This (Oakden) investigation has firmly reinforced my view that the legislation under which I operate ought to be amended,” his report states.
“The process should be transparent so that those who read the ICAC’s report can have confidence in the manner in which the ICAC conducted the process. They need to see the evidence unfold.”
However, Premier Jay Weatherill said Mr Lander’s report “reaffirms” his view that hearings should remain closed and findings “dealt with through a public report at the end of the process”.
Liberal leader Steven Marshall has pledged to change the law to allow the ICAC boss to choose whether to hold public or closed hearings into maladministration and misconduct matters.
SA Best leader Nick Xenophon and Australian Conservatives MP Dennis Hood on Wednesday also pledged to put legislation to Parliament when it resumes later this year to allow discretion for open hearings.
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