Earle Haven hit with sanctions, referred to royal commission

An aged care executive has broken down as he defended his company’s role in last week’s shock closure of the Earle Haven nursing home on the Gold Coast. He’s also made allegations about how the home was operating before his company stepped in.

AN aged care executive has broken down as he defended his company’s role in the shock closure of a Gold Coast nursing home.

HelpStreet Villages owner Kris Bunker choked back tears as he addressed a media conference today on the abrupt closure of the Earle Haven nursing home at Nerang last week, forcing the emergency evacuation of more than 70 residents.

Queensland Police investigating whether charges can arise from Earle Haven home shutdown

Police to declare if Earle Haven nursing home crisis broke laws

Earle Haven: Family of ‘critical’ patient slam aged care crisis at Nerang retirement community

Earle Haven: Nurses speak out over crisis after shock evacuation of patients

He said HelpStreet was brought in by Earle Haven operator People Care im April last year to run the home and found urine-soaked mattresses, hole-ridden bedding and food that was no better than “slop”.

Mr Bunker said HelpStreet had turned this around and he was “devastated” at the “unprecedented” closure of the home, blame for which he laid squarely on People Care.

He said People Care had “serious questions” to answer and called on the company to provide video footage showing the removal of equipment and medicines from the home which was slammed as “disgusting” by Health Minister Steven Miles.

Mr Bunker said HelpStreet’s bank was in the process of refunding money that had been taken out of residents’ accounts after the home closed suddenly.

Kris Bunker addresses the media in the aftermath of an emergency meeting relating to Earle Haven nursing home. Picture: Jerad Williams

Earlier, it was revealed that Earle Haven will be referred to the royal commission into aged care, and had been hit with federal sanctions and banned from taking any new residents for six months.

The revelation came at a crisis meeting of worried residents of the retirement village which adjoins the Earle Haven nursing home.

The nursing home closed abruptly last Thursday, forcing the emergency disaster-style evacuation of more than 70 high-care residents to local hospitals and other nursing homes.

One frail, elderly woman who had been moved to another home later suffered a fall and is in a critical condition in Gold Coast University Hospital.

The closure followed a contractual dispute between Earle Haven’s 77-year-old multi-millionaire owner Arthur Miller and HelpStreet Villages, a company he brought in last year to run the facility and whose services he had terminated.

Earle Haven residents at the meeting this morning. Picture: Greg Stolz

Mr Miller called a meeting of the retirement village’s 800-plus residents today to assure them their homes and bonds were safe and that he intended to reopen the nursing home as soon as possible.

He told residents the police were investigating the alleged taking of funds after the home closed.

But the meeting heard the aged care wing of Earle Haven had been hit with federal sanctions and banned from taking new residents — including those from the retirement village — until at least January next year.

Residents and family from Earle Haven retirement village pack into the auditorium for a meeting about abrupt closure of the nursing home wing.

One woman whose father died at Earle Haven earlier this year — and whose mother is still a resident — asked for reassurances that ‘this will never happen again’.

Aged care expert Karen Heard, who has been appointed an administrator of the nursing home, said she could not give that guarantee but said the ‘unprecedented’ situation would be referred to the royal commission into aged care.