St Basil’s Homes for the Aged criticised over PPE training for staff during Covid pandemic
The Fawkner nursing home where up to 50 elderly residents died during a devastating Covid wave in 2020 will stand trial over the tragedy.
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The nursing home at the centre of a deadly Covid cluster in 2020 will face a criminal trial over the tragedy.
St Basil’s Homes For The Aged in Fawkner was on Tuesday ordered to stand trial in the County Court to answer charges relating to nine Occupational Health and Safety Act offences.
WorkSafe has alleged that after being notified by a staff member of a positive test on July 9, 2020, St Basil’s failed to require workers to wear personal protective equipment and train workers on how to safely put on and take off PPE.
St Basil’s also allegedly failed to verify that staff were competent in using PPE, tell staff when PPE should be used and supervise the use of PPE.
Following a two day committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, lawyers representing St Basil’s were told that a trial was warranted.
They pleaded not guilty to all charges on behalf of the nursing home.
The court heard evidence from a communicable diseases expert and a dementia nurse who worked at St Basil’s in the lead up to and during the outbreak.
A senior WorkSafe investigator also appeared to answer questions about how the case was investigated.
University of Sydney Clinical Chair of Communicable Disease Control and Infection Prevention Professor Ramon Z. Shaban was critical of the training provided to workers about how to prevent and control infection, including the use of PPE.
The court was shown memos referring to multiple Covid education sessions held for staff and spot checks to ensure the correct infection prevention and control measures were being followed.
Minutes from St Basil’s Continual Improvement Committee meetings held prior to the first positive case being detected on July 9, revealed that the centre planned to review its infection prevention and control policies and provide extra education for staff.
Visiting doctors also provided training, the court was told.
However, Professor Shaban said the documents did not detail what training was provided or if it met best practice standards, which included assessing staff to ensure they knew how to “don and doff” PPE safely.
While St Basil’s had provided “sign up sheets” to show staff had attended education sessions there was no indication that each member had successfully completed the training.
The copurt head that it appeared that outdated guidelines had been used for infection prevention and control training on at least one occassion.
A lawyer acting for St Basil’s told the court that the facility had been inspected prior to and during the outbreak by Infection Prevention Control Outreach Nurses.
He said the IPCON squad found that the facility was “well presented” and “adequately prepared” and there was “nothing of particular concern about infection prevention and control practices”.
The court heard that due to many staff having English as a second language, informal training was often conducted verbally during hand overs between shifts.
Noticeboards across the facility were used to alert staff to education sessions and other important information.
A dementia nurse, who no longer works at St Basils, agreed that information was posted on noticeboards.
However, she did not remember seeing memos posted in March, 2020, asking staff to attend education sessions about Covid and reminders about the importance of following hand washing and infection control policies.
It was not clear if the nurse had seen the memos at the time and forgotten or had never seen them.
The nurse also said that she had not seen another memo in April, 2020 that congratulated staff for their efforts in keeping the home free of Covid infections.
A pizza lunch was organised as a thank you.
The April 15, 2020 memo also alerted staff to extra daily cleaning of hand rails and chairs in residents’ rooms, the need to wear PPE if a resident was diagnosed with Covid and provide them with disposable cutlery when dining in their room in the event of an outbreak
“I haven’t seen this memo,” the nurse said.
“I would have (seen the memo) if this was on the noticeboard in the dementia unit.”
The trial will begin with a directions hearing on April 16.
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