Royal Commission finds ‘substandard care’ provided by north shore aged care home
The Royal Commission into Aged Care has admonished Bupa for the “substandard care” given to a 70-year-old woman who died four weeks after entering one of its facilities.
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A probe into the nation’s aged care sector has found a north shore facility provided “substandard care” to a 70-year-old woman including effective pain management, supervision and assistance for eating.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has determined Bupa Willoughby provided inadequate care to the patient who died four weeks after entering the home in July 2017.
The woman – who was given the pseudonym DE – was admitted to the facility for respite care after suffering a fall at her home and treatment at Royal North Shore Hospital.
The woman’s two daughters told the commission they believed a period of respite care would enable their mother to “get better” in order to return to her home.
Upon discharge from hospital, DE was assessed as having “a lack of capacity for decision making” and required a walker and “lots of encouragement for (eating) and supervision during meals”.
In her stay at the facility, the commission found Bupa did not update a care plan for DE that included details about a diagnoses for pneumonia and instructions about feeding based on the advice of a speech pathologist.
The report found there was a “serious failure” for effective pain management including use of the Abbey Pain Scale – a method to determine if someone is in pain when they are unable to verbally communicate.
“DE was essentially unable to communicate verbally (and asking) whether she was in pain or discomfort was an inadequate approach to her pain management needs,” the commission said.
The report found the facility also provided inadequate supervision and assistance.
In their evidence, DE’s daughters said they were concerned staff were “not taking the time to assist DE with eating” and believed staff were “putting food in front of her” and “then returning later to collect the untouched meal to throw it in the bin”.
The daughters said they were also “dissatisfied with the level of information” they received from the facility and “did not know that a palliative care plan had been drafted for their mother.”
On August 15, 2017, the commission found one of the daughters received a call from a nurse at the facility asking if “she wanted Bupa Willoughby to call an ambulance” for her mother but was not provided details of her mother’s condition, symptoms “or whether she had declined”.
The daughter said she could hear her mother “breathing” from 20m away as she approached her room when arriving at the facility at 7.15pm.
The commission heard a GP assessed DE at 9.30pm but after “90 seconds” determined “this is not my area of expertise”.
“He gave us no other indication as to Mum’s condition, what was happening, if or how she was declining, what to expect. We were completely in the dark,” one of the woman’s daughters told the commission.
DE died at 10.45pm.
The report found “the standards of support and empathy of care” that DE’s family were reasonably entitled was “not only inappropriate, it was substandard.”
The report stated that while “we are satisfied that Bupa Willoughby’s care of Mrs DE was substandard … we are unable to make a finding either way on the question whether substandard care led to harm, or loss or damage.”
“The evidence before us suggests that, whether or not actual harm was suffered by DE from these failings was essentially a matter of chance, the practices of Bupa Willoughby were inadequate to prevent or mitigate any such harm,” it concluded.
In a statement, a Bupa spokeswoman said the organisation was “committed to ensuring that we are providing the best possible care for our residents in our Willoughby home”.
“This our number one priority. We are continuously making improvements, including our staffing levels and improving how we communicate with our residents and their families,” the spokeswoman said.
The interim report is available to read on the commission’s website.
The final report is due to be handed down on November 12 next year.