Oakden scandal: Documents released by Aged Care Quality Agency into Oakden nursing home reveal more horrors
UPDATE: A patient with Parkinson’s disease was beaten by another resident at the Oakden nursing home at least 13 times between December and March and did not receive recorded medical care, new documents reveal.
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A PATIENT with Parkinson’s disease was beaten by another resident at the Oakden nursing home at least 13 times between December and March and did not receive recorded medical care, new documents reveal.
The documents, released by the federal agency which audited the home at the centre of an abuse scandal, show the man was “punched on the face and head on five different occasions and sustained three wounds”.
The incident was among a list of alarming findings in which eight patients which the Aged Care Quality Agency determined did not receive proper clinical care over the past year.
The agency’s unannounced audit in March found the facility failed to meet 15 of the 44 standards which led to sanctions on its operation.
In the 1900 pages of documents kept secret until this week, the agency stated the home did not have effective systems in place to ensure care recipients received appropriate clinical care.
“Medical officers are not always informed of care recipients decline in health status or clinical incidents,” the report stated.
“Care recipient/representatives are not satisfied with clinical care provided at the home.”
Details of patient care also revealed:
THE man with Parkinson’s was involved in 16 incidents between December 17 last year and March but not all were recorded. Clinical documents did not always capture if the medical officer was informed or visited once, including when he was assaulted and received blows to the head. He also had an untreated nail fungal infection.
STAFF tried to insert a male catheter into a female dementia patient for two hours while she was “screaming out in pain” until a staff member stopped the incident. The same woman was also fed while drowsy, leading to her choking on food and having to be hospitalised.
A MAN with severe dementia was assaulted by another resident and spent more than a week in serious pain before an X-ray revealed he had suffered two fractured ribs which had caused a bleed into his abdominal cavity and damage to his spleen.
A WOMAN with chronic schizophrenia, who was believed to have deep vein thrombosis, did not receive proper follow up over a period of months despite suffering intense pain.
A DEMENTIA patient was observed by the auditors in March “distressed and crying”. She had been assessed as suffering significant pain in 2015 but had never had follow-up assessments. She was also found with a 14cm bruise on her inner thigh from an unknown cause.
Senator Nick Xenophon, who had to apply for the documents to be released using the powers of Federal Parliament, said heads must roll.
“These 1900 plus pages show a litany of failures at the Federal and State level,” he said.
“If people aren’t held responsible for serious systemic failures then nothing will change.”
Senator Xenophon said he was appalled that Labor did not support the release of the documents in Federal Parliament but commended the Coalition for helping shed light on this issue.
SA Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade renewed his call for Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos to be sacked.
“Minister Vlahos should have resigned when the Chief Psychiatrist released his report. Her performance since has demonstrated that she is not up to the job,” he said.
“The repeated failure of Labor Ministers and senior health officials to accept responsibility for a string of scandals regarding the performance of SA Health is a significant factor in the collapse in public confidence in the health system.”