Senate inquiry after Oakden aged care scandal told underqualified staff can give wrong medications
NURSING home residents are being overdosed with high-risk medicines or given the wrong drugs at the wrong times by underqualified staff, a Senate inquiry has been told.
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NURSING home residents are being overdosed with high-risk medicines or given the wrong drugs at the wrong times by underqualified staff, a Senate inquiry established in the wake of the Oakden scandal has been told.
Regulators and health professionals have warned that many residents of aged care homes are afraid to complain and that staff in some facilities have asked for residents to be sedated so that they will be easier to manage.
Federal Aged Care Complaints Commissioner Rae Lamb said her office received 589 complaints in 2016 about medication administration and management. The complaints were mainly about the wrong medicines or incorrect doses being given, doses being missed or an incorrect method being used to administer drugs.
“Complaints show there can be inconsistency in the skill levels of staff who administer medicine in aged care facilities,’’ Ms Lamb told the Senate community affairs committee.
“The risks seem particularly high in relation to administration of high risk medicines and ‘as required’ medicines. In these cases, an understanding of the pharmacological impact on a person is essential to safe administration and evaluation of the medicine’s effects.’’
Nick Xenophon Team senators successfully moved to establish the Senate inquiry in the wake of the scathing April Chief Psychiatrist’s report into the state-run Oakden Older Persons Mental Health service. The Chief Psychiatrist’s report included allegations that staff had assaulted and over-medicated patients.
An Australian Medical Association submission to a separate Federal Government inquiry into aged care regulation has raised concern about registered nurses being replaced by “junior personal care attendants” and the failure by some facilities to roster nurses to work at night. “Some of our members are concerned that aged care staff are requesting sedation of residents so they are easier to handle,’’ the AMA submission said.
“Restraints such as sedation should only be prescribed where any potential risk or harm caused by the restraint itself is less than the risk of the patient not being restrained. They should always be considered a last resort.”
The Australian Law Reform Commission wants safeguards introduced around the use of sedation or “chemical restraint” in aged-care facilities.
The commission also recommended that unregistered aged care workers be subjected to a national code of conduct.
Carers could be disciplined or banned altogether from working in aged care homes if they breached the code.
The Dietitians’ Association of Australia told the Senate inquiry that action was needed to ensure nursing home residents don’t become malnourished.
The Senate inquiry into aged care will hold a public hearing in Adelaide in November. The separate, Federal Government-commissioned, inquiry into aged care regulation is due to be handed to Federal Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt this week.
The independent Commissioner Against Corruption has launched a maladministration investigation into the Oakden scandal.