St Basil’s inquest: I wasn’t briefed on care fears, says Brett Sutton

Brett Sutton wanted staff at the Melbourne aged care home to stand down if there was an adequate replacement, inquest told.

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton leaves the coroners court in Melbourne on Friday. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton stood down all staff at St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Melbourne without knowing that senior doctors and commonwealth officials feared the replacement “surge workforce” was inadequate, an inquest has heard.

Professor Sutton told the ­inquest into the deaths of 50 residents – 45 due to Covid-19 – that he accepted there was additional evidence that could have been brought to his attention.

He said he was relying on briefings by Victorian health ­department senior medical ­adviser Finn Romanes, who in turn was relying on briefings by Naveen Tanetti, then director of public health services.

“The task as I saw it for me was to make sure that decision [furlough staff] and direction could be put into effect,” he said. Professor Sutton said he made an “explicit edit” to a public health direction provided to him by Dr Romanes that meant staff at St Basil’s should only stand down if they were replaced by a workforce matched in size and skill.

“I think everyone understands that if there was no sign of ­replacement staff on the 22nd, the handover would not take place,” he said. “My direction had the ­caveat that the furloughing would only take place when an appropriate workforce was in place.

“Whether or not it was in place – I understood it to be a critical, necessary component – for that handover to occur and the furloughing to commence.”

Professor Sutton said both the providers of the surge workforce and St Basil’s needed to be satisfied with the replacement workers before furloughing took place.

He said he would have been open to senior St Basil’s staff who had tested negative staying onsite in private accommodation, which some offered to do, but said the possibility had never been raised with him.

“I wasn’t aware there was any alternative proposal,” he said.

Professor Sutton said he ­wanted to acknowledge the tremendous pain and suffering of the families of St Basil’s who had lost loved ones.

“I want to express my heartfelt sorrow for the suffering they’ve gone through,” he said.

The inquest heard the chief health officer became involved in standing down St Basil’s staff when chairman Kon Kontis­ ­initially refused to hand over the facility when directed to do so by Victorian health bureaucrats.

Mr Kontis said he was “not prepared to direct my staff to ­vacate the premises and for alternative staff to be brought in”, and insisted if he was forced to act on this he wanted the direction in writing. Professor Sutton said he signed the letter with that direction for “appearances”, and had Mr Kontis acted sooner he could have prevented further Covid-19 cases at the facility.

In an email from Dr Romanes to Professor Sutton and others, the public health commander sought the chief health officer’s endorsement to furlough all St Basil’s staff, citing the risk to residents as well as the “significant risk of media and other attention and scrutiny on this situation”.

Professor Sutton declined to comment.