Covid scare but St Basil’s worker clocked on

The Melbourne aged care home’s management let a worker come in despite her family showing Covid-19 symtoms, inquiry hears.

Residents were removed from the aged care centre due to a Covid outbreak. Picture: Jason Edwards

The management of St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Melbourne’s north gave the green light for a worker to come to the facility despite members of her family experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, an inquiry has heard.

The personal care attendant, given the pseudonym A by Victoria’s Coroners Court, would become the index case for the outbreak at the aged care facility in Fawkner that claimed the lives of 50 people.

A on Tuesday told the inquest into the outbreak she’d alerted St Basil’s management that two members of her household were isolating after experiencing scratchy throats and were waiting for test results.

Because A was asymptomatic, other than normal work fatigue, she was told to come into work at the facility as per St Basil’s policy at the time in July 2020, just before the second wave engulfed Melbourne.

She was on a tea break on July 8 when she received a text message that her sister-in-law tested positive for Covid-19, saying she immediately alerted her manager before leaving the facility.

A said she told some of her colleagues, and when asked if they had also left after learning of her exposure, she said “I didn't know because within five minutes I left the nursing home.”

She would test positive the next day, sparking one of the deadliest outbreaks Victoria saw during the second wave and prompting Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to order all St Basil’s staff into isolation on July 21.

The federal government took over the facility and sent in a surge workforce unable to manage the frail residents, with reports they were left hungry and dehydrated.

St Basil’s staff member Jagmeet Nagra said she remembered thinking the number of replacement staff sent to the facility was inadequate and said she’d offered to stay in one of the private units because the residents were becoming worried by all the new faces.

“From my understanding, you can‘t hand over one facility [of] 150 people in one day or that many hours,” she said.

Ms Nargra said St Basil’s manager Vicki Kos told her the Victorian government no one was allowed to stay.

In one example, Ms Nagra said there were six workers supplied when there would normally be nine rostered on at a particular area of St Basil’s.

She said she gave the surge workers a “basic orientation” and a handover, instructing them to take notes as she walked them through the facility.

The inquest continues.