Covid Qld: Jeta Gardens fiasco exposes ‘horrendous’ aged care system
Both Coalition and Labor governments have failed to deliver on desperately needed aged care reforms, with the Jeta Gardens facility an indictment of a system advocates say is “horrendous”.
Kylie Lang
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The boss of a beleaguered Logan aged care facility who says he was “caught short” by “unexpected” media coverage shouldn’t have been surprised.
When problems go unaddressed and people feel their voices are not being heard, they go to the media.
The integrity crisis embroiling the Queensland Government as whistleblowers allege ministerial and departmental meddling in what should be an independent public service is a prime example.
You can only bang your head against a wall for so long.
Jeta Gardens, Queensland’s worst nursing home for Covid-19 deaths, was formally alerted to issues of non-compliance last March after a site visit by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Tellingly, one of the care requirements it failed to meet, according to the commission, was “implementing standard and transmission-based precautions to prevent and control infection”.
Things went downhill from there.
By February 2 this year, Jeta Gardens had been demoted by the commission from needing “improvements” to the lowest rating of “inadequate”.
At the time, 10 residents had died from Covid-19.
That figure has jumped to 15 as more families are left crushed and grieving and others tell me they are “terrified” of what might happen to their loved one.
So you have to wonder why CEO Wesley Carter was caught off-guard.
Speaking at a town hall forum on Tuesday when families demanded answers – including one man who asked why Jeta Gardens took more than 14 days to inform him his mother had Covid-19 – Mr Carter said the media spotlight had been “distressing”.
I’m sure, but why did it take so long to address grave problems?
As mandated by the commission, the facility has appointed a clinical advisor, gerontologist Dr Drew Dwyer, to assist with governance, best practice infection prevention and control, and staff training.
In a media statement on Wednesday, Mr Carter said: “As we move forward out of this crisis management situation, Jeta Gardens will re-establish itself as a modern and contemporary aged care service.”
He said a Family Connect hotline and dedicated email service had been set up to improve communication and “extensive” work was being done to mitigate risk of another outbreak.
Jeta Gardens is by no means the only facility with a blemished record, as confirmed by the commission’s Ann Wunsch.
As Labor lashes the Coalition over the dire state of aged care in this country – everything from dragging the chain on booster shots to not providing adequate personal protective equipment – it should be noted that flaws are deep-seated.
Ever since the sector was privatised by then prime minister John Howard in 1997, successive federal governments have failed to take adequate steps to protect the health and wellbeing of some of our most vulnerable citizens.
Lynda Saltarelli, an independent advocate with Aged Care Crisis, believes “both parties are to blame”.
“A free market is totally unsuited, especially with the structures in place, to aged care,” said Ms Saltarelli, who started campaigning years ago when her father needed care and she found the system “wholly horrendous”.
“Labor’s record when last in power is awful; (2010-13 minister for ageing) Mark Butler even out-Howarded Howard,” she said.
“Butler’s changes were promoted to the public as ‘Living Longer Living Better’ but they turned a dysfunctional system into a catastrophic one.”
Ms Saltarelli also said the 2018 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, tabled in March this year, didn’t go far enough.
“Most of the changes have been industry led, and industry has a vested interest,” she said. “There has also been a revolving door of political appointments to key bodies; it’s like groundhog day as issues remain unaddressed.”
She said a lack of transparency and accountability meant choosing an aged care facility was “a lucky dip”.
Ms Saltarelli is calling for strict regulation and independent policing of the sector, something the commission is unable to do given its close links to government and industry.
The brutal lesson from Jeta Gardens is that slaps on the wrist are not working.
Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
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