Secret aged-care camera reveals shocking abuse of patients

A camera hidden in the room of a nursing home resident suffering from Parkinson’s disease has recorded ill-treatment by staff.

A hidden camera in an aged care facility has revealed a member of staff ill-treating a resident with Parkinson’s disease. Photo: iStock.

A camera hidden in the room of a Melbourne nursing home resident suffering from Parkinson’s disease has recorded ill-treatment by staff including him being yelled at, berated, dropped from a lifting machine and being left ­unattended despite him being ­unresponsive.

The footage has provided the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety with yet more evidence of care workers mistreating those in their charge.

Counsel assisting the commission, Paul Bolster, said the appalling treatment of the man, identified only as Mr UG, was “the tip of the iceberg” at the Greenway Gardens facility in the east Melbourne suburb of Heathmont. “The care of numerous residen­ts was inadequate,” he said of the facility, one of 13 owned by Menarock Life.

Mr Bolster described harrowing scenes captured by the hidden camera, which were not made public by the commission at the request of the family of the now deceased Mr UG.

“It shows, in summary, staff handling Mr UG roughly, of staff berating him, telling him to get his damn legs back into bed, saying ‘I’m sick to death of this’,” Mr ­Bolster told the commission.

“Saying ‘I’m not a slave’. Saying ‘It’s bloody 11 o’clock, everyone is asleep and you keep getting up. I’ve got more important things to worry about than your feet. Don’t talk to me any more.’

“Staff also spoke to him like a child. Staff refused to assist him to the toilet. Staff telling him to stop moving when he has Parkinson’s disease, saying ‘For goodness sake, stop this fidgeting’. Staff putting him to bed at 2.40 in the afternoon when he was clearly awake and then telling him he has to stay in bed for another hour.’’

Mr Bolster described an incid­ent last November at 7.30am when Mr UG collapsed as he was being helped to stand up with the support of a lifting machine around his waist. “The staff member­ lifted him up by the shirt to the bed, tapped his face, called his name, asked if he was all right … Put him back to bed, changed his continence aid and turned him. No other staff attended to asses­s Mr UG’s condition.

“At 9.06pm on the same day, the same staff member returned, and again put him in the stand-up lifting machine while urging him to stand up.’’

The commission heard that Greenway Gardens was sanctioned by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission in February this year, when it was deemed to present an immediate and sever­e risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of residents.

The sanction was lifted in July when an adviser was appointed and the home agreed to provide relevant training for staff to better meet residents’ needs.

The commission heard that staffing levels at Greenway Gardens were inadequate for months, rostering was not based on the acuity of the residents, and it had training and culture issues and high levels of casual employees.

Menarock Life director Craig Holland said the company had made a net profit for the group of nearly $4m in fin­ancial year 2017 and just over $4m in the 2018 finan­cial year. “In 2019, when all this was happening at Greenway Gardens, it was $6,243,000?” Mr Bolster asked.

“Correct,” said Mr Holland.