Coronavirus: Anger rises as home’s death toll hits 12 with more expected to die

The death toll at a western Sydney aged-care home hits 12, with the operator’s boss conceding more are likely.

Patricia Shea, 76, looks out from her bedroom window to the perimeter fence to see her son Anthony Bowe at Anglicare’s Newmarch House on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

The operator of Newmarch House has warned that more residents of the western Sydney nursing home are likely to die from COVID-19, with 34 battling the virus and the death toll at the facility climbing to 12 on Wednesday.

Family members have been barred from entering the Anglicare-run facility to care for sick relatives unless they are in palliative care, and then under strict conditions to avoid exacerbating the outbreak, now the nation’s second-deadliest.

Angry family members gathered outside the nursing home in Caddens, near Penrith, on Wednesday to voice their concerns. They said they had been excluded from having a greater say in the treatment process for their loved ones and had not been contacted about deteriorations in their conditions. They railed against Anglicare for denying prompt, clear and daily communication.

A security guard stands in the driveway as flowers are seen left at the entrance to Anglicare Newmarch House agedcare home in Kingswood, near Penrith.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was disappointed with how the operator had managed communication with families. “I can confirm last night the Minister for Health contacted the federal Minister for Aged Care to express our government’s concerns at the lack of communication between the centre’s operators and the relatives,” she said.

Infections have been growing steadily at the nursing home over the past week, at the rate of up to two fresh cases a day.

Many of the home’s residents suffer complex illnesses, including dementia. As of Wednesday, 56 people there had tested positive to the virus, according to NSW Health: 34 residents and 22 staff.

The infected residents are mostly being treated within the nursing home by contracted medical specialists.

The outbreak has been traced back to a part-time aged-care worker who completed several shifts at the home with very mild flu symptoms. Her infection was confirmed on April 11, and authorities have been fighting to contain the outbreak ever since.

Family members pleaded with Anglicare on Wednesday for more structured and clearer communi-cation on their loved ones.

Anthony Bowe, whose mother, Patricia Shea, 76, was diagnosed with COVID-19 two weeks ago, said he was not told she had been put on oxygen to help cope with breathing difficulties caused by the virus. “At the moment, it’s pretty much wait until they have an hour to live and then we’ll give you a call,” he said.

A joint letter sent by family members to Anglicare chief executive Grant Millard spoke of how phones at the facility “go unanswered for hours at a time and over days”, and called for a hotline to be established so information could be more readily conveyed.

“Newmarch phone lines are our lifeline to our sick parent,” they wrote. “The sick residents are often too unwell to answer their own landlines.”

Mr Millard said the centre was warned last weekend that the number of deaths would rise this week, and NSW Health had been on site numerous times to manage the contagion and ensure residents testing negative were truly free of the virus.

Newmarch House in Caddens during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Nothing actually prepares you for the trauma that our staff and residents and families are dealing with,” he told the ABC. “We do anticipate more deaths, yes.”

He said mobile phones had been provided to residents so they could speak to their loved ones, though he conceded some did not know how to use them.

Infection controls were initiated after the carer was diagnosed on April 11, Mr Millard said. A week later, a 93-year-old resident became the first person to die of the disease. More deaths followed, and those numbers rose sharply on Tuesday when it was revealed four residents — aged 91, 93, 90 and 89 — had died in a 21-hour period from the virus. A fifth person succumbed to the illness hours after these deaths were announced.

There are 21 registered nurses and 25 carers staffing the facility, according to Mr Millard, who said an additional 11 cleaners and at least eight more supporting staff were on site to care for the facility’s 81 residents.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said some of these staff were provided by Aspen Medical, the private contractor that undertook the Ruby Princess risk assessments and contagion control.

NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay took aim at the Premier over her handling of the outbreak, saying she acted two weeks after the first cases were reported, and questioned why families had not been given the option to transfer their relatives to a hospital.