Newmarch House families to sue over 19 coronavirus deaths in nursing home

Families who lost loved ones during the coronavirus outbreak at Newmarch House nursing home in Sydney will launch a class action against Anglicare.

Families of residents at Sydney nursing home Newmarch House will launch a class action against Anglicare after 19 patients died during one of the country’s worst coronavirus outbreaks – accounting for nearly a fifth of the nation’s death toll.

Shine Lawyers, which is handling the action, will allege the care provider was negligent in its handling of the crisis and breached its duty of care to residents.

The first Newmarch House resident was diagnosed with coronavirus on April 13 after a staff member went to work while showing symptoms. She had finished six shifts at the nursing home before she was put into isolation.

The care home, near Penrith, was locked down on April 14, but by April 16, nine residents and six staff had contracted the virus.

Less than six weeks after the first case was diagnosed, 34 staff and 37 residents had contracted the virus, and 19 people had died.

Patricia Shea, 76, who was diagnosed with COVID-19, waves to her son from the window of her accommodation at Newmarch House residential care in Caddens, Sydney on May 3. Picture: Damian Shaw

Families were furious to learn their loved ones had not been taken to hospital after their diagnoses and regularly lambasted Anglicare during media interviews for a lack of communication.

Shine Lawyers’ national practice leader Lisa Finn said the class action would seek compensation for the families of the deceased and alleged Anglicare was “ill-equipped to handle the outbreak of coronavirus at the facility”.

“Grieving relatives want to know why their loved ones weren’t immediately taken to hospital after testing positive so they could receive the high-level clinical care they needed,” she said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“They also want to know why they were kept in the dark as coronavirus spread through the facility and why staff were either not qualified or not properly supported to make critical decisions.

“The reality is lives would have been saved if Newmarch House had the right protocols and medical care procedures in place and adhered to them from the start.”

Family members of Newmarch House residents Liz and Samantha Lane, Simone Breia, Anthony Bowe and Charlie Breia outside the nursing home on Tuesday, May 5. Nearly 20 people died as a result of the outbreak at the nursing home. Picture: Monique Harmer

Liz Lane, whose mother Rose lives at the nursing home, told the Today show on Thursday while her mother did not contract the virus, she would be joining the action to try to fight for change in the aged-care sector.

“The whole thing was just so appalling really,” she said of the outbreak.

“In the first early few weeks the families were just scared to death. Every single time our phones rang, every time we got an email from Newmarch it was the question, are they ringing to tell me it’s mum or dad and the deaths just kept rising and rising and rising.”

An Anglicare spokesman told NCA NewsWire the organisation was not able to comment until the action had been filed in court.

Originally published as Newmarch House families to sue over 19 coronavirus deaths in nursing home