Coronavirus: families race to get loved ones out

Desperate families are scrambling to rescue their loved ones from a nursing home at the centre of a fatal coronavirus outbreak.

Patricia Shea, 76, who is COVID-19-positive, gives a thumbs-up to her son at Newmarch House in Sydney on Sunday. Picture: Damian Shaw

Desperate families are scrambling to rescue their loved ones from a nursing home at the centre of a fatal coronavirus outbreak as health officials concede a breach of infection-control methods may have sparked a “second wave” of infections at the ill-fated facility in Sydney’s west.

Family members said they wanted to get their elderly relatives out of Anglicare’s Newmarch House near Penrith on Monday after a 76-year-old resident died on Saturday, bringing the death toll at the 102-resident facility to 14.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said families of the estimated 60 residents who were COVID-19-negative could apply to remove them from the home but they would have to first endure a 14-day quarantine at a hospital ward or family residence.

Security speaks with visitors outside Newmarch House on Sunday. Picture: Jane Dempster

Sam Cauchi, whose 92-year-old mother Josephine has tested negative for the virus, said it was now “abundantly clear” that the facility was not up to the task of protecting their residents.

“She’s negative, so we want her out now,” Mr Cauchi told The Australian. “They don’t know what the hell they are doing. I’d say it’s a joke if people weren’t dying.”

There are now 63 infections linked to the nursing home, including 26 staff and 37 residents since the outbreak on April 11.

Anglicare CEO Grant Gillard finally conceded on Sunday that there had been “failings” at the facility and said alternative accommodation options for people who tested negative were being discussed with some families.

“It would seem fairly obvious that there have been failings,” he said. “The use of PPE (personal protective equipment) is foreign to a lot of people,” Mr Millard told Seven News.

Samantha (9) and Elizabeth Lane, Anthony Bowe and Sam Cauchi are appealing to have their relatives removed from Newmarch House over fears they will contract COVID-19. Picture: Jane Dempster

Elizabeth Lane, whose mother has tested negative and is in a palliative care ward with severe dementia, urged the NSW government to “step in” and relocate healthy residents to Nepean Hospital. “While they are negative, keep them negative,” Ms Lane said.

“I’m terrified my mum will be the next to test positive — she’s a sitting duck.”

Mary Watson, whose 93-year-old mother, Alice Bacon, was diagnosed with COVID-19 10 days ago, said Anglicare had warned family members there would be “more deaths”.

“My mum is hanging in there,” Ms Watson, 62, told The Australian. “They’re doing an audit now and if errors were made let’s hope they’re being fixed.”

It is understood senior doctors attached to the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases unit at Nepean Hospital met with senior managers representing Newmarch House and some family members at the facility on Sunday.

Some family members say their elderly relatives have chosen to “stay put” at Newmarch House after Anglicare agreed to move residents who had tested negative into a separate wing of the home.

“More and more people are testing positive,” said Kevin Silvy, the son-in-law of resident Robyn Christie.

“If they got the help they’re getting now, I’m sure there would’ve been less cases,” Mr Silvy said.

Raina MacIntyre, a biosecurity and infectious diseases expert at the University of NSW, said containing a virus like COVID-19 had proven to be “notoriously hard” in aged-care homes.

“It’s still possible to contain the epidemic by getting everyone who is sick out and into hospital or into an isolation room,” she said.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has defended the government’s handling of the outbreak amid a second wave of infections, and said he had expressed his disappointment to Anglicare’s management. “I made my views very clear to Anglicare,” he said. “That’s all I’ll say.”

Daily testing of staff entering Newmarch House, meanwhile, will begin on Monday after NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the state’s health department would deploy two senior infection-control nurses to monitor conditions inside the home.

“We’ve clearly seen transmission that on the surface looks like there’s been breaches of infection control amongst particularly the staff,” Dr Chant said.

“There have been some elements where consistent application of infection-control prac­tice has not occurred.”

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has criticised the state government for failing to act sooner, and said families should have been given the choice to transfer their relatives to a hospital much earlier.

“This is now a public health crisis,” Ms McKay said. “We know at least seven or eight (residents) have been infected in the last three days, which means there is a second wave within Newmarch house.”

Mr Hazzard defended the staff who had spread the infection, saying dealing with the virus was “like almost going to the moon” but he conceded there had been breaches of health protocols.

“Some of those people may or may not known exactly how to use the equipment in the most appropriate way,” he said.

Ann Fahey, 76, died at 4.05pm on Saturday at Nepean Hospital in Penrith, becoming the 14th resident to die of the disease.

Her family said she had twice tested negative to the virus before falling gravely ill.