St Basil’s inquest: Doctors warned against standing down aged care home staff

Victorian CHO Brett Sutton stood down all staff at the aged care home despite being warned it would be disastrous, an inquest has heard.

Christine Golding’s 84-year-old mother Efraxia was one of 45 St Basil’s residents who died after contracting Covid-19.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton stood down the entire workforce at an aged-care centre in Melbourne’s north despite warnings from doctors that residents would be in danger and knowing the federal government was struggling to find a replacement workforce.

The inquest into the deaths of 50 residents in 2020 at St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner heard the day after staff at the ­home were stood down, federal chief nursing officer Alison McMillan declared it “fit for purpose” and there was no need to evacuate sick residents. The federal and Victorian governments pointed fingers at each other on Monday as the children of the deceased shared their grief with the inquest and recalled how they desperately tried to find out whether their parents were still alive when St Basil’s was locked down in July last year.

Counsel assisting Peter Rozen QC told Victoria’s Coroners Court that experts had identified two root causes of the tragedy, which saw the federal government take over the centre after the Victorian government ordered all St Basil’s staff into isolation.

These were a lack of co-ordination between the state and federal health departments and an eight-day delay between St Basil’s notifying the Victorian Health Department of positive cases and testing results becoming available.

Mr Rozen said doctors flagged concerns about furloughing staff in several meetings with the Victorian and federal health departments and the aged-care regulator before the decision to put all staff into isolation was made at 3pm on July 21.

At the final meeting, two doctors who worked at St Basil’s – Zi Yi Low and Rabin Sinappu – told the meeting that furloughing all staff was a “shocking idea” that would create a “disaster” while ­centre manager Vicki Kos said it would be “dangerous”.  Federal Health Department employee Neil Callagher told the meeting he was facing significant challenges finding replacement staff.

“Despite the concerns of the doctors and the operator of St Basil’s, the 3pm meeting on 21 July, 2020, concluded with a ­decision to press on with the ­replacement of the entire staff at St Basil’s,” Mr Rozen said.

“This was despite all present apparently being aware of a risk that the replacement workforce may be inadequate to meet the statutory care standards.”

At this point, 40 St Basil’s residents and 19 staff members had tested positive for Covid-19.

In Canberra, Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck and federal Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy were discussing St Basil’s.

Colbeck said Victoria’s public health unit notified the federal department of the St Basil’s outbreak on July 14, which is five days after the state department was notified.

“The furloughing of all the staff, which was a decision of the Victorian Public Health Unit, made it extremely difficult to provide the continuity of care for residents,” he said.

A Victorian government spokesman said “As the regulator of aged care, the Commonwealth Government was responsible for the emergency response and we supported them in every way.”

The St Basil’s outbreak prompted the establishment of the joint Commonwealth and Victorian Aged Care Response Centre.

Professor McMillan agreed to visit the centre after Dr Murphy flagged he was “very concerned” about the situation.

The inquest heard that on July 22, Professor McMillan emailed Dr Murphy and other senior health bureaucrats that St Basil’s was a “fit for purpose facility” and there was “no need for a significant evacuation of positive residents to hospital”.

Mr Rozen said Professor Murphy’s assessment delayed the transfer of a significant number of Covid-19 positive residents until July 24 when “the true extent of the neglect became apparent to those at the highest levels of the commonwealth and Victorian governments”.

The inquest heard St Basil’s would descend into chaos after staff were stood down and replacement staff were reduced to tears as they came into a new facility to care for elderly residents they had never met

The inquest heard that Professor Sutton, who is due to give evidence on November 24, said he had the best interests of residents and staff at heart when he made the decision.