Infected patients mingled with others at Anglicare’s Newmarch House

A Sydney nursing home scrambles to set up a COVID-19 wing after it emerged infected residents may have been able to ‘move freely for weeks’.

An Anglicare chaplain talks with Anthony Bowe, right, whose mother is a resident of Newmarch House in western Sydney. Picture: Jane Dempster

The operators of a western Sydney nursing home at the centre of a fatal coronavirus outbreak are scrambling to set up a COVID-19-positive wing after it emerged some infected residents may have been able to “move freely for weeks” throughout a designated common area inside Anglicare’s Newmarch House.

Elizabeth Lane, whose 84-year-old mother, Rose Davies, has tested negative and is suffering from severe dementia, said she was “left stunned” on Friday when her mother was wheeled back through part of the facility she believed was earmarked as an exercise spot for COVID-19-positive residents.

“I was outside with my mother and I saw a resident on the other side of the glass sliding door exercising,” Ms Lane said. “It only hit me later when I realised we had wheeled mum back through that same room after the visit.”

An emergency response effort involving state, federal and private health agencies to establish a “clean wing” was ramped up on Monday after a male resident died, bringing the death toll at the 101-resident facility to 15.

On Sunday, NSW Health Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said Anglicare had kept one part of the facility as a “clean wing” for residents who did not have the virus.

Multiple family members, however, told The Australian that residents were not being “physically removed” from Lawson wing but had instead been confined to opposite ends of the “U-shaped building”.

“They are putting up a solid partition,” Ms Lane said. “I was told there are now physical barriers being put in place after NSW Health said to separate residents.”

There have been apparent major failures of infection control at Newmarch House, with fresh cases of coronavirus among staff and residents recently diagnosed more than three weeks after the outbreak of the disease was discovered.

Anthony Bowe, whose 76-year-old mother, Pat Shea, was ­diagnosed with COVID-19 19 days ago and is being treated in the Lawson wing, said it was “mind-boggling” that residents who had not been infected were “even in the same building” as his mother. “Mum was among the first 10 people to be infected,” he said. “They fell like dominoes in that patch of Lawson Wing. I’ve no idea why negative patients are still under the same roof as residents like my mum.”

Lionel Fowler, 87, a COVID-19-negative resident in Blaxland wing and a former chief pharmacist at Nepean Hospital, was surprised Anglicare had not moved positive residents to ­Nepean Hospital, just over 1km away and with a ready supply of ventilators.

“I would’ve thought Nepean would be quite up to the mark with all of their new buildings,” he said.

A spokesman for Nepean Hospital said specialist doctors were providing “around-the-clock” care to residents in Newmarch House, but some may have chosen to shun invasive end-of-life care. Nurses in Lawson wing are ­reportedly not allowed to treat both COVID-19-positive and negative patients, and meals are being prepared and delivered by a “third party” at another facility.

Newmarch resident Pat Shea, 76, who has COVID-19.

“There’s no such thing as a clean wing at Newmarch,” said Ms Lane. “My mother has tested negative and yet she is still in Lawson wing — the worst-hit area of the home.”

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

The outbreak at Newmarch House, which threatens to overtake the Ruby Princess as Australia’s deadliest wave of the virus, began when a part-time carer worked six shifts while suffering from “minor symptoms”.

Infectious disease experts say it is possible the virus was “bubbling under the surface” before the woman tested positive, and long before a 93-year-old man became the first resident to die from the virus on April 18.

“The spread might’ve occurred before quarantining started,” said UNSW professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an adviser to the World Health ­Organisation’s COVID-19 preparedness group. “Even after quarantine starts, it is very difficult to keep the uninfected group safe.”

Professor McLaws said the ­facility’s COVID-19-positive residents should be urgently relocated to a specialist hospital ward. “We’ve learnt from cruise ship outbreaks (that) it is difficult to keep susceptible passengers safe while on-board with positive COVID-19 cases,” she said.

Other experts questioned the capacity of Newmarch House to provide care for COVID-19 residents. “Care homes are not equipped to run as a hospital,” said Joseph Ibrahim, head of the Health Law and Ageing Research Unit at Mon­ash University. “Where is the evidence, where is the proof that they have the staff, the medication and the resources to deliver that care and to turn an aged-care home into a mini ­hospital?”

He said it was extremely concerning infected ­patients were housed close to those who did not have the virus. “What you normally do with situations where a person is highly infectious is separate them from people who don’t have the infection. Or you take the people that are well and put them somewhere else,” he said.

Federal Labor on Monday called for the aged-care royal commission to lead the investigation into “what went wrong” at Newmarch. “It is vitally important workers and providers are supported to ensure that we limit the transmission of COVID-19 in aged care,” opposition ageing spokeswoman Julie Collins said.

The royal commission has called for submissions from family members affected by COVID-19 in aged care.

The circumstances at Newmarch House are currently being reviewed by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the public health unit of the ­Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District.