Coronavirus: Death No 16 as Newmarch House home in hygiene horror

A 16th resident has died at the Newmarch House aged-care home as serious questions are raised about the facility’s hygiene protocols.

A man attaches screening around Newmarch House in western Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Richard Dobson

A 16th resident has died at the aged-care home at the centre of one of the nation’s deadliest corona­virus outbreaks as serious questions are raised about the facil­ity’s hygiene protocols and its handling of hazardous materials.

A neighbour, living next door to the Newmarch House centre in suburban Penrith, has revealed that disused and potentially infect­ed personal protective equipment from the home had been discarded in his yard and that it took “two days” before Angli­care, which operates the facility, arranged to dispose of it.

The revelation comes as the number of infections inside the facility­ continues to grow, more than three weeks after the outbreak erupted, with Anglicare confirming on Tuesday that another­ three staff members had tested positive for COVID-19.

It also emerged that a contractor employed by Aspen Medical — the group engaged by the federal government two weeks ago to help staff the nursing home throughout the crisis — had been stood down for allegedly breaching infection control measures.

There have now been 66 infections at the home, 29 staff and 37 residents — almost 40 per cent of occupants — since the virus was first detected there on April 11 when a part-time carer tested positive after working six shifts while suffering “minor symptoms”.

As scrutiny intensifies on the home and how the outbreak has been managed, staff at the facility spent Tuesday assembling makeshift fences to prevent concerned family members from briefing the public on how their loved ones were faring inside.

Martin Kuppan, who has lived next door to Newmarch House for 15 years, said he was stunned when it took Anglicare two days to clear discarded personal protective equipment, including blue protective footwear and a medical mask, that he “stumbled across” in his front yard on Monday last week.

Visitors outside the aged-care facility. Picture: Richard Dobson

“How on earth does medical equipment get out of a facility where people are dying from the coronavirus?” the 48-year-old said. “I had a very heated phone call with someone from Anglicare but it still took a threat from me to call the police before they both­ered to do anything, and that wasn’t until last Wednesday.”

He told The Australian he reported­ the suspected breach of safety protocols to the public health unit at Nepean Hospital and was told the infectious diseases team would raise the allegation with Newmarch House.

The home has been plagued by accusations of mismanagement from anxious families and infectious disease experts, who fear it will overtake the Ruby Princess as Australia’s deadliest virus source.

An Anglicare spokesman said staff were doing everything possible to contain the spread of the virus. “We take our PPE protocols seriously,” he said. “It’s vital to protect those we’re caring for from this terrible virus.”

Federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said a review was already being conducted into the disaster. “The circumstances at Newmarch are being reviewed by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the public health unit of the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District,” a spokesman said.

A resident inside the Anglicare-run home. Picture: Richard Dobson

Infectious disease experts have repeatedly questioned the ability of Newmarch House to provide care for COVID-19 residents and some believe there have been major failures of infection control.

“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?”

Desperate families said they were being forced to “wade through” pages of paperwork to get elderly relatives out of Newmarch House.

“It’s certainly not easy,” said Elizab­eth Lane, whose 84-year-old mother has tested negative and is in a palliative care ward with severe dementia. “I’m dreading the call that says Mum is the next positive, she’s a sitting duck.”

Newmarch House is scramb­ling to set up a COVID-19-positive wing after it emerged on Monday that some infected residents may have been able to “move freely for weeks” through a designated common area inside Lawson Wing, the part of the facility hit hardest by the outbreak.

Multiple family members told The Australian residents were not being “physically removed” from Lawson Wing but had instead been confined to opposite ends of the “U-shaped building”. “There’s no such thing as a clean wing at Newmarch,” Ms Lane said.