Earle Haven Retirement Village: Residents evacuated after care facility closed
Furious and confused elderly residents - including some with dementia - at a prominent Gold Coast rest home face uncertain futures after a pay dispute walkout plunged the facility into crisis.
Gold Coast
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ELDERLY residents from a prominent Gold Coast retirement home have been plunged into chaos following a mass staff walkout, due to a reported business dispute.
State Government’s Gold Coast Health stepped in this afternoon when notified a majority of the 70 residents of Earle Haven Retirement’s aged care facility had to be moved or risk homelessness.
A number for residents have extreme dementia and another 30 per cent are estimated to be immobile.
The pending evacuation of the private facility led to Queensland Ambulance Service and police called to the distressing scene.
Gold Coast Health has set up a hotline for concerned family members of residents looking for further information.
GOLD COAST HEALTH HOTLINE: 13 43 25 84
Callers who get no answer are asked to leave their contact details so staff can call back.
Newcorp understands the nursing home called 000 at 1.41pm to advise emergency services the facility had gone into administration and all bar five staff remained to look after the 69 patients on hand.
Gold Coast Health has also set up a crisis unit at the nursing home and brought in food and medical supplies as well as doctors, nurses and social workers.
A spokeswoman said all 70 residents were being evacuated to other nursing homes and local hospitals tonight.
Two residents with medical conditions have already been taken to hospital.
A representative of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union is on scene as staff wonder whether they still have a job.
Queensland Nurse and Midwives Union team leader of the union’s Private Aged Care Team Bernadette O’Connor said she had “never seen anything like it”.
“I think it’s a tragedy, it’s a symptom of a broken system, and yet again it’s the residents and the people caring for them that are the meat in the sandwich,” she said.
“We have not hit rock bottom with the aged care system, and it’s just getting worse. It was urgent five years ago and this is no surprise.”
Health Minister Steven Miles described the situation as extraordinary.
“When families choose an age care provider to care for their loved one they have every right to expect that won’t suddenly abandon them,” he said.
“I want to thank the Queensland Ambulance Office and the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service for their swift actions to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the residents at the centre.”
Mr Miles said he had written to the Federal Government urging immediate action to find new accommodation for the residents left stranded.
The Earle Haven Retirement Village aged care wing contractor Help Street claimed they were given until August 9th to vacate, less than eighteen months after they started working at Earle Haven.
The drama did not affect Earle Haven residents in independent living units at this time.
The Village business director Arthur Miller is understood to have a contract with Help Street to run the aged care wing for five to 10 years. Help Street started in April, last year.
Help Street CEO Kristofer Bunker said the situation was “gut-wrenching”.
“We’ve done a lot of work here at our own expense because we saw it as a business venture,” he said.
“We tried to meet with (Arthur Miller) yesterday but he would only speak to us through his lawyer.”
A nursing contractor claimed Mr Miller told staff he would “not pay a cent,” following weeks of payment disputes with Help Street.
“It is chaos,” the nurse told the Bulletin.
“QAS are managing the home to ensure the care of residents.”
“Employees were told they can’t be paid, we ourselves have not been paid so staff opted to leave.”
One long-time retirement village resident of the nursing home said today’s events were a “complete shock”.
“We were told that Help Street have gone into receivership and then suddenly there were five ambulances here,” the resident told the Bulletin tonight.
“There’s no staff to look after all these people or serve the meals. They’re telling us they have it under control but it’s a hell of a to-do.
“It’s terrible. We are all wondering what the hell is going on.”
The Bulletin understands a separate medical supply company is also on site retrieving their materials.
Help Street employee Elizabeth O’Loughlin said staff and residents have been left bewildered.
“There were residents in there I had to say goodbye to today and they just cried,” she said.
“It’s been handled very poorly. I think it’s been in the works for a while. I’m out of a job now, we’ve all got families.
“We served breakfast, we served lunch and then (my boss) came along and told us after lunch to pack up and leave.”
A Gold Coast woman who was visiting her two parents in their 90s at the retirement village said she was shocked to discover she was not allowed inside.
“It is disgusting, all of the fridges were gone, no one knows where the medications are,” she told the Bulletin.
“My parents are both in their 90s and have dementia, we haven’t been told anything.”
“We have no idea where they are going, or what they are doing tonight, where they are getting moved to or if we can get some answers.
FIRST LOOK AT COAST’S GIANT NEW RETIREMENT VILLAGE
The woman said staff are also unable to elaborate on the situation at hand.
“It is disgusting, really we have stories of it going into receivership but we have been told about nothing else.
“There are ambulances everywhere and police staff have been deployed from the Gold Coast Hospital.”
A spokesman for Gold Coast Health said they were working closely with Queensland Ambulance to ensure all of the residents are moved off site.
“We have a number of staff and ambulances on site for a medical response to ensure all residents are being cared for,” a Gold Coast Health spokeswoman said.
“We will bring patients who need more acute care to the hospital and are certainly liaising with other hospitals and nursing homes on the Gold Coast to ascertain vacancies and ensure everyone is safe.
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Gold Coast Health is also working with family members of Earle Haven Retirement patients to ensure they are aware of the situation.
A number of social workers are at the facility to assist families on-site.
“It is a private company that runs through a private provider, we were given the notification this afternoon and rapidly deployed our care team on site,” she said.
“This is obviously a difficult situation for families.”
A Queensland police spokeswoman said police were called to the retirement home about 2pm in “relation to a disturbance”.
It is understood a crew of officers were there to “keep the peace”.
Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon said she was horrified by today’s events.
“I’m appalled that elderly people in our community have been abandoned while in a private aged care facility,” she said.
“I have been talking about the problems within the aged care sector for some time now and today we are witnessing the real consequences.
“I’ve spoken with the Health Minister who I understand has written to the Commonwealth demanding immediate action to find new places for these residents.”
Earle Haven Retirement is a residential aged care facility with independent living units.
The retirement village was founded by prominent Gold Coast developer Arthur Earle, who, along with Robin Loh, built Robina.
He first came to the Gold Coast in the 1960s and developed significant portion’s of the city’s west. It’s understood their family no longer has any involvement with the facility.
The millionaire businessman, whose projects continue to stand in Nerang, was one of the city’s most famous residents.
He died in 1998 at age 84.
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