By Rachel Clun
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck has blamed Victoria's second wave of coronavirus for deaths in the aged care sector and says he does not feel personally responsible for them.
It was also revealed the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission was in ongoing talks with the minister about giving it more teeth after complaints increased due to the pandemic.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck told Senate estimates 2194 aged care staff in Victoria had contracted the virus and all but three had since recovered.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Under questioning from Labor senator Kristina Keneally on Tuesday, Senator Colbeck said while he personally felt "every single one" of the almost 700 aged care deaths during the pandemic, he had at no point offered his resignation as minister.
"I don't feel responsible personally for the deaths that have occurred, as tragic as they are, which were caused by COVID-19," he told a Senate estimates hearing.
When asked if anything could have been done differently to prevent the aged care outbreaks, Senator Colbeck pointed the finger at Victoria's handling of the pandemic.
"The thing that would have saved lives is the prevention of the escape of COVID-19 in Victoria, leading to the second wave, that's the thing that could have saved lives," he said.
Health Department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy told Tuesday's hearing as community transmission in Victoria rose, it also grew in residential aged care settings.
"That is the single most important factor in aged care outbreaks and deaths, there's no question in my mind about that," he told the committee.
Professor Murphy said there were two factors that led to Victoria's second wave of community transmission: infection control breaches in hotel quarantine, and the fact the Victorian health system became overwhelmed.
"They became unable to deal with the contact tracing and isolation and quarantine in a timely and appropriate manner; they had a lot of delays and that led to further spread," he said.
In Australia, 216 residential care facilities have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak and 2049 aged care residents have contracted the virus. Victoria accounted for the bulk of those cases, with 1986, followed by NSW with 61, and one each in Queensland and Tasmania.
To date, 683 people who were in residential aged care have died with COVID-19, as well as eight people receiving home care.
The failures in aged care have been the subject of a fierce political stoush, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews emphasising the federal government's role in funding aged care and regulating standards, while Canberra has pointed the finger at Victorian health authorities.
Meanwhile, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has been recruiting 40 additional staff after complaints increased, including complaints about the ability to visit loved ones in residential care homes.
Commissioner Janet Anderson said the commission was in discussions with Senator Colbeck about gaining additional power, including including the ability to issue fines and infringement notices for breaching aged care standards.
"These are tools which are available to other sorts of regulators," she said on Tuesday evening.
Aged care was an "imperfect sector", Ms Anderson said, and as a group, providers had now realised they were overconfident in the face of the pandemic.
"They thought they were better prepared than they turned out to be," she said.
"Dealing with gastroenteritis is one thing, dealing with a highly contagious asymptomatic virus which stalks its way into residential aged care is another thing."
Senator Colbeck told Tuesday's hearing 2194 aged care staff in Victoria had contracted the virus and all but three had since recovered.
Of that number, 924 were personal care workers and 80 per cent of them contracted it at work. By comparison, 922 nurses had contracted coronavirus, with 79 per cent of them getting infected at work.
Greens senator Rachel Siewert questioned Senator Colbeck about his past assertion that aged care workers brought the infections to work, given that the majority caught the virus while on the job.
"It might have been one or two staffers who brought the virus in," he said. "Not only have they infected residents but they [then] infected some of their co-workers."