South Australia in the dark for six weeks about disabled woman left to die

Ann Marie Smith developed septic shock, multiple organ failure from severe pressure sores and malnutrition.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. Picture: AAP

For the last year of her life, disabled woman Ann Marie Smith sat immobile and alone in a wicker chair in her Adelaide home, her only point of contact with the outside world a female support ­worker meant to tend to her for six hours a day.

From being confined to the chair that also doubled as her toilet, Smith developed septic shock, multiple organ failure from severe pressure sores and malnutrition. By the time her support worker called an ambulance, she was ­beyond salvation.

Smith, who had cerebral palsy, died at the Royal Adelaide Hos­pital on April 6, aged 54.

Her support worker is facing manslaughter charges as a picture emerges of a helpless woman who fell through the cracks, not just at the hands of a derelict carer but with breakdowns in communication and oversight between the federal and state governments.

With Premier Steven Marshall describing the case as “sickening” and vowing it could not ever be ­repeated, it emerged on Monday that the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and federal Disability Minister Stuart Robert learnt of Smith’s death immediately after it occurred, but noticed the SA government only last Friday — almost six weeks later.

Smith’s disability provider, ­Integrity Care, issued a statement on Sunday saying it had sacked the employee for “serious and wilful misconduct” but failing to shed any light as to whether the carer had been visiting Smith as required but failed to act on her condition, or whether she had been not visiting, acting belatedly to call an ambulance only when she could not be saved.

Smith has no Adelaide-based relatives; her parents died some years ago and her brother is understood to live interstate or in country SA.

Mr Marshall announced on Monday an urgent taskforce to ­investigate the case and the communication and oversight failures.

“This case, and the alleged horrific conditions in which Anne-Marie Smith was living, have sickened us, sickened every single person in SA,” he said. “We must make sure this can never, ever happen again.”

Earlier on Monday, Disability Services Minister Michelle Lensink had an awkward interview where she admitted the commonwealth had advised the SA government only last week, by which point it was a police investigation.

Mr Robert did not explain the lag time in advising SA but ­announced on Monday the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission was investigating the case. “It’s an incredibly tragic case, it is heartbreaking. I think the nation needs answers on this,” he said.

One key question will be why there is no oversight, or in­adequate oversight, for carers who work alone with no one else checking patients in their care.

The SA opposition said the Marshall government had contributed to the problem by removing funds for the community visitor scheme.