Coronavirus victims left dead in their beds for hours at Epping Gardens nursing home

Doctors reveal shocking scenes from inside nursing home as health crisis in Victoria threatens to spiral out of control.

A resident is evacuated from Epping Gardens Aged Care Home on Thursday. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Coronavirus victims were left dead in their beds for several hours at a nursing home in Melbourne’s north this week, with the revelation coming as the health crisis in Victoria threatened to spiral out of control after a large spike in the number of COVID-19 related deaths and infections across the state.

Senior doctors told The Australian that a number of deceased patients were left in their beds for about six hours at Epping Gardens nursing home. The claim was confirmed by another senior health source who has been providing assistance at the facility in recent weeks.

“We are risking becoming bed-blocked and the system will not be able to re-open for acute business unless a solution is presented to resettle and provide quality care to the residents,” one doctor said.

The Australian Defence Force has been called into Epping Gardens, which has been linked to 90 COVID-19 infections and six deaths, after the number of staff caring for residents plummeted to a ratio of one to 13, underlining the pressure the aged-care sector is facing to care for elderly residents during the pandemic.

On Thursday, Australia recorded its worst day for the number of coronavirus infections and deaths since the pandemic started, with 747 new cases reported in the prior 24 hours, 723 of them in Victoria. The worsening public health crisis prompted Premier Daniel Andrews to extend the compulsory mask-wearing order to include all areas of Victoria.

Of Thursday’s 14 new deaths in Victoria, 10 were from nursing homes in the state, taking the total to 59 aged care deaths since the “second wave” began this month.

Overall, 456 nursing home residents are currently COVID-19 positive, many of whom continue to be transferred to public and private hospitals as the virus rips through a number of facilities.

The worst nursing home outbreak is at St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner, with 111 cases, while Epping Gardens had registered 90 as at Thursday night. Ten aged care homes have now had more than 40 cases.

When asked about neglect of deceased residents at Epping Gardens, a spokeswoman for the federal Department of Health said: “The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has issued a regulatory notice to Epping Gardens as it was determined there was severe and immediate risk to residents. The provider must appoint an adviser and they must follow the adviser’s directions.”

The Australian contacted Epping Gardens for comment, but did not receive a response.

A senior doctor said many of the nursing home’s residents were not only COVID-19 positive, but also had other serious health conditions including dehydration, malnutrition and pneumonia.

Epping Gardens nursing home, operated by independent provider Heritage Care, is having additional care provided by Austin Health and Ramsay Healthcare, which both stepped in this week to provide “clinical leadership”.

The Australian understands that on Monday the situation was so dire that for every staff member on duty, they had 13 to 14 patients to look after.

Normally, staff in public hospitals have four to five to ensure high-quality clinical care but in nursing homes there are no set ratios. The federal Aged Care Act only required aged care providers to have an “adequate number of appropriately skilled staff”.

Scott Morrison said on Thursday the situation at Epping Gardens was not yet stabilised, “but there has been significant progress from yesterday”. “There have been further transfers from those facilities,” the Prime Minister said. “There has been a significant change in the management of those facilities.”

A relative of a resident at Epping Gardens Aged Care Home drops off a package. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mr Morrison has also acted to address the issue of lax infection control at some nursing homes after a number of family members of residents had raised serious concerns. He threatened to withdraw the accreditation of nursing homes that failed to protect staff and residents by not ensuring the correct use of personal protective equipment.

“There has been far too much anecdotal evidence that we’ve been receiving of PPE — despite the training, despite PPE being there — not being used in the way it should,” he said. “Failure to comply with the requirements of using PPE will lead to marking down on people’s accreditation.”

Mr Morrison said Australian Medical Assistance Teams had been deployed to support the worst affected nursing homes in Victoria, and more nurses were set to arrive from Western Australia in coming days.

He also said he supported the extension of safety measures for regional Victoria.

“We have now been in this lockdown for some weeks, and we are not getting the results we would hope for,” he said.

Mr Andrews pleaded with people to stay at home, saying workplace transmission was driving Victoria’s record numbers of COVID-19. “The key point here is that too many people are still going to work when they have symptoms,” he said.

Mr Andrews has suspended elective surgeries to free up private hospital operators to mobilise staff to care for aged care residents, but that has created a doctor shortage across the private sector, given most doctors run private specialist practices and are not employed by hospitals.

The struggle for clinical resources prompted Victoria Atkinson, chief medical officer of Australia’s second biggest private hospital operator, Healthscope, to issue an impassioned plea to doctors to help ease the load by volunteering their expertise.

“Without you, we can provide a bed and nurses and executives but we can’t provide care,” she said in a video message to specialists seen by The Australian.”

ASX-listed aged care provider Estia risks losing its commonwealth funding after being served a “notice to agree” from the Aged Care and Quality Commission, over the COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes.