Victoria’s COVID-19 aged care clusters grow again

An expert has issued a stark warning about the handling of clusters at 24 aged care facilities in Victoria amid fears the death toll could drastically rise.

A divide is emerging between experts and health authorities about how best to handle coronavirus clusters at Victorian aged care facilities.

There are now 24 nursing homes where COVID-19 is spreading among staff and residents in Victoria.

At the Menarock Life Aged Care centre in Essendon, the cluster has grown to 28 cases and represents the largest single cluster in Victoria’s aged care system since the pandemic began.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said on Tuesday that all infected patients at Menarock have been transferred to hospital for care.

But he rejected the notion that all aged care patients with COVID-19 should be transferred to hospitals.

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A staff member carries a delivery at the Menarock Life aged care facility on Tuesday. Picture: William West/AFP

“I don’t think it’s always the case that patients in aged care, residents who test positive, need to be transferred,” Prof Sutton said.

“Sometimes the safest place for them is to remain in that facility, but we’ll always make a consideration and it will be a clinical judgment of the treating doctor for those patients.

“Where we think there’s a risk of transmission within that facility, we will make a strong recommendation for those patients to move out to an acute health setting but it’s really done on a case-by-case basis.”

That approach is out of step with recommendations from one of Australia’s most respected epidemiologists, UNSW’s Mary-Louise McLaws.

The World Health Organisation adviser told news.com.au “all residents” with COVID-19 should be removed from aged care facilities without exception.

“All residents in aged care must be transferred from their facility into a hospital because staff in the residential aged care facilities do not have the training and skill required and resident to staff ratio is not high enough to contain and prevent wider spread of COVID-19 into other residents,” she said.

“Their transfer into hospital will prevent further spread and further associated deaths as well as reduce the risk of death in those already infected.”

Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Pat Sparrow, agrees with Professor McLaws.

An ambulance officer transports a patient from Pitt Wood nursing home in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield. Picture: Bill Hearne.

She told the ABC: “The Victorian government’s position is ‘assessment on a case-by-case basis’. Only the South Australian government has said they will automatically transfer patients who are positive into other settings. That’s something we’re hoping to see other governments do.”

Prof Sutton acknowledged the situation is “challenging”.

“Sometimes (infected) residents are looked after in place. If the isolation, single rooms, en suite bathrooms are available and those patients, residents can be managed onsite,” he said.

“In other facilities, because there’s a shared bathroom or difficulties in managing the movement of residents around the facility, they will be transferred, as has been the case with Menarock aged care.”

Victoria recorded 270 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday. Of those, 242 were spread through the community from unknown sources.

A man in his 30s is among 28 Victorians in intensive care.

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