St Basil’s managers make bid to avoid inquiry into Covid disaster

The daughter of a St Basil’s victim says it’s “slap in the face” that managers are trying to dodge an inquiry into aged care deaths for fear of incriminating themselves.

The daughter of a St Basil’s victim has begged a court investigating the deaths of 50 residents not to allow the tragic home’s two managers to avoid giving evidence.

Her plea comes after St Basil’s chairman Kon Kontis and facility manager Vicky Kos asked the State Coroner two days earlier to excuse them from the inquest on the basis they might incriminate themselves.

Helen Karikas, whose mother Vasiliki ‘Vicky’ Patsakos died with Covid-19 while suffering severe dehydration, told the inquest, “the grieving families trusted them”.

“Please do not allow Vicky Kos and Kon Kontis to be excused from giving evidence,” Ms Karikas said through tears.

She said “the 50 victims were under their care” and that the families “deserve to hear them answer the questions put to them”.

“If they do not take the stand it will be a final slap in the face for all of us,” she said.

Ian Hill QC, for Ms Kos and Mr Kontis, objected to her statement, cutting it short.

The pair is due to give evidence early next week. The two will make applications to be excused.

Two managers are due to give evidence early next week. Picture: Jason Edwards

Ms Karikas told the court she managed to follow staff into a locked-down St Basil’s in July 2020, where she found her mother, who was “half of what she was”, suffering muscle waste and hanging skin, and begged staff to give her food and water.

”She was very frail, motionless, she didn’t know who we were,” Ms Karikas said.

Vicky was eventually taken to Peninsula Hospital, where she died on August 11.

Her husband John — who was not a St Basil’s resident — died three weeks later.

He suffered a heart attack on being told his wife of more than 60 years had been diagnosed with Covid-19, and was released from hospital just one day before her funeral.

Ms Karikas said her father simply “couldn’t cope”.

The inquest heard from the nation’s top aged care bureaucrat, who said the Commonwealth found out about the deadly outbreak “by accident”.

Michael Lye said the “case wasn’t triggered” because St Basil’s manager Vicky Kos didn’t send an email to the Commonwealth, even though she called the Federal Covid-19 hotline the day a worker tested positive, on July 9.

Her notification of the positive case wasn’t passed on, delaying mass testing of St Basil’s residents and staff by five days.

The deputy secretary for Ageing and Aged Care said the Commonwealth learned “by accident” of the St Basil’s outbreak during a daily briefing with Victorian authorities on July 14.

Over 50 residents died at St Basils Greek Orthodox because of a Covid outbreak. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Lye claimed the “operating processes were clear” and said he was “angry” that Ms Kos didn’t report the case via email, which would have triggered a response.

He also lay blame at the feet of St Basil’s for being “technically responsible” of the home despite having all its staff stood down and replaced by Commonwealth agency workers on July 22.

The court heard that counsel assisting would submit to His Honour Judge John Cain that the Commonwealth was actually in charge at the time residents suffered neglect, dehydration and starvation from an overwhelmed and underresourced replacement workforce.