Every Queensland aged care home ranked on how safe residents feel

A private aged care group rapped over the knuckles for a lack of staff, has two out of the three lowest ranked homes in the state for safety, according to its residents. Queensland homes ranked.

EXCLUSIVE: Shocking findings have emerged after aged care residents were asked how safe they feel in their facility, and many did not have glowing reviews.

TriCare’s Upper Mt Gravatt and Bundaberg facilities, were ranked lowest and third lowest respectively.

Only seven per cent of residents surveyed at Upper Mt Gravatt said they always felt safe, while around a fifth at Bundaberg said they either never or only sometimes felt safe.

The Government data was collated last year from up to 20 per cent of residents from each home. More than 420 Queensland homes were surveyed. The results go towards their overall Star Ratings.

In 26 Queensland aged care facilities at least one resident said they never felt safe. There were also 24 homes, including three from BlueCare, where 100 per cent said they always felt safe.

In January the aged care watchdog cracked down on providers who were not spending enough time caring for residents. Among them were nine TriCare facilities, excluding Bundaberg. Those nine have agreed to immediately recruit more nursing and care staff.

Anna Willis, CEO of Aged Care Justice, which helps people seeking legal redress due to financial, emotional or physical damage suffered in residential aged care or home care, said there had been an uptick in complaints this year, with 45 inquiries already, compared to 110 last year.

“We have had serious complaints from all over Australia,” Ms Willis said.

Aged Care Justice CEO Anna Willis. Picture: Supplied

Two complainants, in facilities not on the lowest ranked list in Queensland, revealed how their relatives felt unsafe.

One said she was shocked to find her mother, who is in her 90s, had been prescribed strong antipsychotic drugs by a visiting GP, which she did not need, and put in a memory loss unit where people were screaming and shouting all day, and walking in and out of her room.

“While on those drugs she could hardly put one leg in front of the other and she was having falls in the nursing home,” the daughter, who did not want to be identified, said.

She is no longer on those drugs and has been moved.

One aged care resident suffered injuries after falling getting on a bus without help. Picture: Supplied

On another occasion the daughter arrived to find her mother’s feet were badly swollen, but no one had noticed.

“I raced up to the nurse and I said, ‘My God, look at my mother’s feet, look at this, they’re so swollen, the skin has split’. It was terrible.”

Another relative said staff failed to ensure her mother was able to get on a bus safely, and she fell, leaving her with cuts and bruises.

“They pulled her by the hands to pull her up,” she said. “They could have pulled her arms out of her sockets. Where’s the training or common sense? She’s fragile.”

One aged care resident suffered injuries after falling getting on a bus without help. Picture: Supplied

The Aged Care Act, due to come into force in July, will give the regulator more powers to take action against aged care facilities.

TriCare did not respond to our request for comment, but a spokesperson from Arcare North Shore, which was the second lowest Queensland ranked home in the survey, said they remained “committed to continuously improving the experience of our residents”.

Originally published as Every Queensland aged care home ranked on how safe residents feel