Aged-care royal commission to uncover thruth, say whistleblowers

Relatives of victims of an aged-care scandal hope a royal commission will rebuild governance.

Clive Spriggs in Adelaide yesterday. Picture: AAP

Relatives of victims of the Oakden aged-care scandal in South Australia hope a royal commission into the sector will rebuild governance so the nation can be a world leader.

Oakden whistleblowers Stewart Johnston and Clive Spriggs yesterday told The Australian they welcomed Scott Morrison’s “fantastic” announcement of a royal commission, following appalling cases of abuse of elderly people.

“I think a royal commission is the only forum where we’re actually going to get to the bottom of what is occuring in the sector and get some clarity,” said Mr Johnston, whose mother, Helen, ­accused Oakden staff of repeated assaults in 2008.

“All the inquiries we had into Oakden has only strengthened my resolve (that) a royal commission is needed — it is more expansive and can delve deeper and get ­people in front of them to sort out what’s needed.

“All these other inquiries are toothless and often just politically motivated ... nothing ever gets done. I think that’s why a royal commission is the only way to go; people can be held accountable moreso than in any other forum.”

The Prime Minister’s decision was triggered in part by the Oakden nursing home scandal in South Australia. Mr Morrison noted that next week would mark a year since Oakden closed after revelations early last year that elderly patients with ­dementia had been abused for at least 10 years.

“The Department of Health has closed almost one aged-care service per month since Oakden, with an increasing number under sanction to improve their care,” Mr Morrison said.

The federally funded Oakden aged-care home run by the South Aus­tralian government closed after abuses of dementia ­patients who were over-medicated, ­in­adequately fed, ­injured, placed in mechanical restraints for up to 10 hours a day and isolated in ­squalid conditions.

The home failed 26 of 44 ­accreditation standards in 2007 and its federal funding for new residents was suspended for six months. A thorough investi­gation by the state’s chief psychiatrist was commissioned only in December 2016, after the family of patient Bob Spriggs persisted with a complaint made six months earlier that was initially fobbed off.

The 66-year-old, who died in the centre, had been over-­medicated and appeared to have been inappropriately restrained.

His son Clive yesterday said a royal commission was a “huge game-changer for this country”.

“It will be able to look into the full extent of what is happening so we don’t have these problems again and our ageing population gets the care they deserve,” he told The Australian.

“Nothing is ever going to fix what happened at Oakden, but we have to move on from that and put that behind us and strive in this country to be a world leader in aged care.”

Mr Johnston’s mother, then aged 71, left two weeks into a five-week stay at Oakden to treat chronic pain, telling her family that she had been thrown on to a toilet and left there by a staff ­member. It was alleged a staff member then returned and slapped Helen after she rang the aid bell.

Mr Johnston said he had been fobbed off after raising the matter.

He criticised the former Labor government, particularly after the release of an ICAC report in March, for trying to “stage-­manage” victims’ families.

“They were just trying to cover up what was really going on ... ­politicians are part of the problem, I’ve seen that first-hand,” he said.

Mr Johnston said he hoped a key focus of the royal commission would be on the operations of the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency.

“The whole system of governance in the sector needs to be ­rebuilt from an independent viewpoint,” he said.

“A lot of people have done wrong, including criminality, and they need to be held to account.”