Every NSW aged care home ranked on how safe residents feel

Shocking results have emerged after aged care residents were asked how safe they feel in their facility, and many did not have glowing reviews. See how homes in NSW ranked.

EXCLUSIVE: Aged care residents in almost 70 homes across NSW say they never feel safe, a shocking survey reveals.

While 57 homes got a perfect score for the question, ‘Do you feel safe here?’, in 69 aged care facilities, up to a sixth of residents surveyed claimed that was never the case.

At SummitCare Penrith, which was ranked lowest in the state for safety, the survey found 13 per cent never felt safe, another 13 per cent felt safe some of the time, 33 per cent felt safe most of the time and 40 per cent always felt safe.

The facility did reply to our request for comment. 

The Government data was collated last year from up to 20 per cent of residents from each home. More than 780 NSW homes were surveyed. The results go towards their overall Star Ratings.

Anna Willis, CEO of Aged Care Justice, which helps people seeking legal redress due to financial, emotional or physical damage suffered in residential aged care or home care, said there had been an uptick in complaints this year, with 45 inquiries already, compared to 110 last year.

“We have had serious complaints from all over Australia,” Ms Willis said.

Aged Care Justice CEO Anna Willis. Picture: Supplied

Two complainants, with residents in homes not in this state’s lowest ranked, revealed how their mothers felt unsafe.

One said she was shocked to find her mother, who is in her 90s, had been prescribed strong antipsychotic drugs by a visiting GP, which she did not need, and put in a memory loss unit where people were screaming and shouting all day, and walking in and out of her room.

“While on those drugs she could hardly put one leg in front of the other and she was having falls in the nursing home,” the daughter, who did not want to be identified, said. She is no longer given the drugs and has been moved.

One aged care resident suffered injuries after falling getting on a bus without help. Picture: Supplied

On another occasion the daughter arrived to find her mother’s feet were badly swollen, but no one had noticed.

“I raced up to the nurse and I said, ‘My God, look at my mother’s feet, look at this, they’re so swollen, the skin has split’. It was terrible.”

Another relative said staff failed to ensure her mother was able to get on a bus safely, and she fell, leaving her with cuts and bruises.

“They pulled her by the hands to pull her up,” she said. “They could have pulled her arms out of her sockets. Where’s the training or common sense? She’s fragile.”

One aged care resident suffered injuries after falling getting on a bus without help. Picture: Supplied

The Aged Care Act, due to come into force in July, will give the regulator more powers to take action against aged care facilities.

Among the other lowest ranked homes in NSW, eight per cent of residents at Bupa Queens Park in Waverley, said they never felt safe. A spokesperson said their own in-house survey found 93 per cent always felt safe.

At Warrigal Mount Terry in Albion Park seven per cent of residents said they never felt safe. A spokesperson said it was “committed to ongoing improvements”.

And at HammondCare Southwood, where a quarter of residents said they only felt safe some of the time, it has added extra shifts to support dementia patients.

Originally published as Every NSW aged care home ranked on how safe residents feel