Aged care watchdog finds The Belmont aged care home non-compliant after Covid outbreak

The aged care watchdog has criticised the handling of a Covid outbreak at a Geelong facility and found it non-compliant with a national standard.

The aged care watchdog has criticised the handling of a Covid outbreak at a Geelong facility, and found the home non-compliant with a national standard.

An outbreak emerged at The Belmont in October last year, and it’s understood five residents were hospitalised with Covid.

A resident died in hospital in November after being infected with the virus.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission found the facility, located in Belmont, to be non-compliant with its organisational governance standard, due to failing to meet a requirement relating to risk management.

The commission said it would continue to “closely monitor” the service, and could consider regulatory action if improvements were not made.

In a statement TLC, which operates the facility, said TLC Aged Care and its clinicians strongly disagreed with the commission’s assessment of the standard.

The Belmont aged care facility.

An audit report from the commission said the facility had risk mitigation strategies in place to protect residents from exposure to Covid, but when an exposure occurred, it applied a policy which saw all Covid positive residents transferred to hospital.

It noted the hospital needed to call a code grey during a resident with Alzheimer’s disease’s stay due to his wandering and agitation requiring the use of psychotropic medication.

“The service’s decision to transfer out consumers for public health reasons was not requested by nor discussed with the local public health unit,” the report said.

“There was insufficient information to demonstrate transferring out of each Covid-19 positive consumer to hospital for treatment was clinically indicated nor appropriate.”

“It was not evident … that the (The Belmont’s) policy is focusing on consumer-centred care nor shared decision making in supporting consumers to live the best life they can.”

The report also noted the provider did not demonstrate how the facility was ready to divide into zones or to otherwise separate different cohorts of residents to limit the risk of further transmission.

The commission conducted the assessment in November in response to concerns raised about The Belmont.

“An assessment contact is typically undertaken as a targeted assessment in relation to identified concerns or increased risk and therefore focuses on assessing performance in relation to specific requirements of the Aged Care Quality Standards,” the commission said.

The commission said areas had been identified in which improvements must be made by the provider to ensure compliance with the standards.

“If the provider cannot demonstrate that it has made or is making progress on implementing the required improvements at the service, the commission may consider further regulatory action such as applying sanctions, varying (i.e. shortening) the accreditation period, or revoking approved provider status,” the commission said.

The audit also assessed requirements relating to assessment and planning and responding to deterioration in residents, which the facility was found to be compliant with.

TLC said for the past 30 years, it had been guided by the best health advice from medical professionals.

Originally published as Aged care watchdog finds The Belmont aged care home non-compliant after Covid outbreak