Nurse felt so ‘unsafe’ at aged care home before woman’s death she feared for her career, inquest hears

A NURSE at the aged care home of a woman whose death is the subject of a Coronial inquiry feared her career would be over if she continued to work there, the inquest has heard.

Counsel assisting the coroner Jodi Truman and Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Keiran Wells on day two of the Coronial Inquest into the death of 78-year-old Barbara Francis. Picture: Glenn Campbell

• Elderly woman in care home lay on the floor with broken hip for more than an hour, inquest hears

A NURSE at the aged care home of a woman whose death is the subject of a Coronial inquiry feared her career would be over if she continued to work there, the inquest has heard.

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage is investigating the death of 78-year-old Barbara Francis in September 2018 after being admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital for surgery on a broken hip.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Jodi Truman, told the inquiry Mrs Francis broke her hip in a fall at the Southern Cross Care Pearl aged care home in Fannie Bay two weeks earlier.

On Wednesday, registered nurse Annabelle Cook told Ms Armitage she decided to stop working at the home almost as soon as she started, a month before the incident, because she felt “unsafe working there”.

“I felt unsafe because the way that we learnt at university, the standard wasn’t there at Pearl,” she said.

“The medication administration, it wasn’t clear, it was half on paper, half on a computer screen – that’s one example, there were other examples.”

Christian Velarde, who is a personal care assistants at the Southern Cross Care Pearl aged care home when Barbara Francis was a resident in 2018. Pictured outside court during the Coronial Inquest into the death of 78-year-old Barbara Francis. Picture: Glenn Campbell

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Ms Cook said she was so concerned about standards at the nursing home she thought she might lose her registration and be out of a job.

“I was worried that my nursing registration might be on the line and if I were to lose that I wouldn’t have an income,” she said.

“I’ve never been before the court before so working at Pearl, that’s what has brought me here today and I don’t want that to happen again.”

Ms Cook told the court she had seen another dementia sufferer at the facility “get angry and hit (Mrs Francis)” up to three times before she fell.

The court heard it took paramedics more than 90 minutes to arrive to treat Mrs Francis and Ms Cook said the elderly woman was crying and upset “pretty much the whole time”.

She described the handover to the ambos as “embarrassing”.

Samita Thapa, who is a personal care assistants at the Southern Cross Care Pearl aged care home when Barbara Francis was a resident in 2018. Pictured outside court during the Coronial Inquest into the death of 78-year-old Barbara Francis. Picture: Glenn Campbell

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Under cross examination by the care home’s barrister, Stephen White, Ms Cook rejected suggestions it wasn’t working at Pearl that brought her to court but the specific incident involving Mrs Francis.

“If it wasn’t this incident, I believe it would have been something else at Pearl,” she said.

Earlier, forensic pathologist John Rutherford told the inquiry while the fall and subsequent surgery may have contributed to Mrs Francis’s death, her underlying health conditions meant she “could have died at any time”.

The inquest continues today.

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