‘Dirty bedsheets’ as virus forces aged-care staff into isolation

Concerned relatives claim family members in a Sydney aged-care home are missing meals at the short-staffed facility.

The exterior of the Anglicare Newmarch House in Caddens. Picture: Christian Gilles

Concerned relatives claim family members in a Sydney aged-care home are missing meals and being forced to lie in dirty bedsheets as the short-staffed facility’s carers struggle to cope with a COVID-19 outbreak that has killed three residents in the past week.

Anglicare chief Grant Millard said on Wednesday its Newmarch House aged-care facility at Penrith in Sydney’s west was dealing with a “massive challenge” trying to contain the outbreak, which has infected 14 staff and 28 of the 100 residents.

Mr Millard said the home was in the “eye of the storm” and “scratching around” trying to find enough replacement nursing staff after 55 employees were ordered into home isolation. They are not expected to return until next week.

The outbreak began with an aged-care worker who worked at the home six days running, unaware her mild respiratory symptoms and a “scratchy throat” were symptoms of coronavirus.

The woman tested positive on April 11 and NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said she had been “mortified and distraught” at the thought she had unknowingly infected her vulnerable patients.

Within a week, two residents, aged 93 and 94, died from the virus and on Tuesday night Anglicare reported a third resident, a 92-year-old woman, was also dead.

Distraught relatives of some of the residents who gathered outside Newmarch House on Wednesday accused Anglicare of failing to move quickly enough to manage the nightmarish con­ditions for residents who were all under lockdown in their rooms.

“There are numerous cases of neglect in there and they still haven’t done anything about it,” said Anthony Bowe, whose mother is a resident at the home.

“Mum had a fall yesterday; they patched her up, they didn’t do a good job, and she’s still in the bed with the blood on the sheets because there’s no laundry service … it’s horrendous.”

Another relative, Louise Payne, told her mother in March she was in the safest place in Australia but she now feels she is in the most dangerous place. “Yes, they locked us out so the virus couldn’t get to the residents. But they didn’t take the next step,” she said.

One public health expert said once infection set in at aged-care facilities, the rates of infection were “explosive”.

Mr Millard said the home and commonwealth health officers planned to meet with represen­tatives of families to “make sure their concerns are answered”.

“We are working hard to contain this virus and provide our residents with the care they have been used to and deserve,” he said.

Early last month, BaptistCare’s Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park was the first confirmed cluster in NSW. Six of the 16 infected residents have since died from the virus.