Qld aged care home failure revealed

A Queensland aged care home has been sanctioned for failing to comply with standards of care. See the full list.

Some aged care residents have been found with necrotic wounds and others had to wait six days to be referred to hospital after sustaining serious injuries, compliance checks have found.

Residents were found with bed sores or diabetes that were not properly managed, others were losing weight and some did not receive adequate pain relief or were chemically restrained.

Despite a Royal Commission and billions of dollars in extra funding the latest aged care compliance data shows between July 2022 and 30 April 2023 more than 1,227 problems were recorded in aged care services around the country.

Even though some aged care providers had multiple reports detailing problems they were allowed to continue to operate.

St Nicholas Nursing Home in Highgate Hill. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Audits of homes found staff shortages and unqualified staff, and there were carers at some who did not understand medications or how to manage the behavioural problems of residents.

At various points during the nine month period 79 homes around the country were found in such serious breach of aged care standards they would have qualified for a one star rating under the new Star Ratings system that commenced in December last year.

In Queensland one home St Nicholas Aged care in Brisbane was sanctioned for failure to comply with standards in August 2022.

It was ordered to hire an adviser to provide extra training for staff.

Other Queensland homes with less serious breaches have been included on the list in the table below.

An audit in August 2022 found nine consumers were trapped in upright chairs with tray tables used as mechanical restraining devices.

Some residents were not released from the tray tables for extended periods of time and slipped down in the chairs while restrained.

“Staff reported not having time to attend to consumers’ personal hygiene or releasing consumers from restrictive practice. Staff were observed not acknowledging or addressing the consumers who were calling out for assistance for several hours,” the assessors found.

Other residents were given psychotropic medications to control their behaviour.

The home had four bed wards and some residents were kept awake at night by other residents calling out.

One resident expressed suicidal ideation thoughts and had a bell cord draped around their neck. “No support or services has been offered to support the consumer’s psychological or emotional wellbeing,” the report found.

Covid positive residents had to isolate with Covid negative residents.

The check found unclean bathroom floors, unclean utility rooms, and consumers’ hair being cut in a toilet used for personal care.

One resident who was involved in serious physical and verbal incidents but these were not logged as serious incident reports as required.

The assessors found “cluttered passageways, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on handrails and equipment in hallways, impeding on consumers’ ability to easily move throughout the service.”

There were limited lounge spaces, shared bathrooms were dirty and cigarette smoke could be smelt in the foyer, nurses’ station and dining room.

Furniture and fittings were observed to be worn, old and damaged and there were complaints there were not enough care staff.

The home now has a four star rating and is considered “Good” according to the My Aged Care website.

St Nicholas Aged Care responded to News Corp and explained: “The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission attended Saint Nicholas Aged Care for an assessment contact on 30th and 31st May 2023.

“The assessment team’s assessment of the provider’s performance, in relation to the service against the quality standards were all assessed as met.”

From July aged care homes will be required to have a nurse on site 24 hours a day. Picture: Istock

Assessors reported the home was now attending to sleep problems, infection risks and had replaced the old worn furniture, moved its smoking space away from the entryway.

“Staff interactions with consumers were observed to be kind, caring and respectful,” the report said.

In December the Australian Government introduced Star Ratings for aged care homes to help people better compare providers.

Compliance is one of the 4 key areas of performance that make up the overall Star Rating.

Major reforms to aged care are underway with the May budget funding a 15 per cent pay rise for aged care workers.

From July aged care homes will be required to have a nurse on site 24 hours a day, although the government has admitted staff shortages will make this hard to enforce.

From October 1 residents will have to receive at least 200 care minutes per day, including 40 minutes with a nurse.

The Australian Government is also spending $12.9 million to fund a complaints service about food in aged care as well as introducing new nutrition standards.

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said the commission was increasing its monitoring of the sector.

“In the 2022-23 financial year (to 31 March 2023), the Commission conducted over 1,400 more visits to aged care services across Australia, across all service types, than for the same period in the 2021-22 financial year (1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022),” she said.

“This higher level of monitoring gives us greater confidence that we are identifying instances of non-compliance. In bringing these to a provider’s attention, we are essentially presenting them with both a clear expectation and an opportunity to change what they are doing and improve the outcomes for people in their care,” she said.

Where there is clear evidence of persistent disregard by a provider of their obligations, the Commission will draw on all available compliance and enforcement tools, including sanctions, to ensure that consumers are kept safe, she said.

“We can and often do also determine a shorter accreditation period for a residential service where we find non-compliance (ie. for a period significantly less than 3 years). This means that the service will undergo another full site audit sooner than would otherwise be the case,” she said.