Geelong’s Charles Brownlow Retirement Village apologises to grieving husband over wife’s care

A grieving husband has received an apology from a Geelong nursing home over several “systemic” failures after he complained to the Aged Care Commission about his wife’s care.

Rodney Reed wrote to the Aged Care Commission about his wife’s treatment at the Charles Brownlow nursing home in Highton. Picture: Mark Wilson

A “five-star” Geelong aged care facility has apologised to a grieving husband for the care his late wife received, saying it had made changes after acknowledging some failures in meeting its own “very high standards”.

Rodney Reed placed his wife Kathleen in Charles Brownlow Retirement Village in early 2023 due to her progressing dementia. Mr Reed said the care his wife received was deficient and unacceptable and after her death later that year, he filed a report to Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission (ACQSC) detailing his frustrations.

“Sadly, even after a Royal Commission, this experience is probably still endemic to many nursing homes,” Mr Reed said

“We had to initiate virtually everything that occurred, including getting palliative care.”

“And I’m fully aware for people who are poorer or in worse nursing homes the conditions would be even worse.”

“God help people without an advocate in these nursing homes.”

On September 6, 2023, Mrs Reed’s family arrived at the nursing home just after 3pm to find her with food over her face, hair and clothes, and food unswallowed pooled in her mouth.

Distressed, they realised this may have been her state since lunch hours earlier.

This situation was just one detailed in Mr Reed’s report to the ACQSC, outlining seven issues he considered systemic at the nursing home in the Highton facility.

Rodney Reed says the care his wife received was deficient and unacceptable. Picture: Mark Wilson

In response to his complaints, the commission provided Mr Reed with a report acknowledging four of the issues were “systemic” and would be passed on to the Quality and Monitoring Group to be noted at their next unannounced visit to the home.

The report also stated that the facility had acknowledged the issues and implemented staff “education” to address them where necessary, which the report deemed “adequate”.

That education was used to address two of the concerns – that the service did not manage Mrs Reed’s pain effectively according to her plan; and that the home did not appropriately assess, manage, and monitor Mrs Reed’s dysphagia, a difficulty swallowing.

Mr Reed said he was perplexed by the response.

“Re-education?” he said. ”Why the hell wasn’t this training there in the first place?

“How did they get accreditation?”

He said the commission’s promise that these practices had changed was a less-than-satisfactory response and came too late for his wife.

“They’ve made these acknowledgments now, but the reality is, is it being implemented in practice?” he said.

“That’s the role of the Quality and Monitoring Group, but I don’t know whether they’ve visited or not.”

“There are fundamental cultural issues that need to be addressed.”

In March, the Charles Brownlow Retirement Village manager apologised to Mr Reed in a letter.

A Ryman Healthcare spokesman, the company that runs the facility, said the site had received a five-star rating from the government’s aged care quality assessment system, placing it among the top 2 per cent of facilities in the country.

“We acknowledge that some aspects of Mrs Reed’s care did not meet the very high standards of care we demand for all our residents,” he said.

“As outlined in the commission’s letter, we have adopted all the recommendations made to address the issues identified in this case.”

Originally published as Geelong’s Charles Brownlow Retirement Village apologises to grieving husband over wife’s care