Commission fails city aged care facility over quality issues
A TOOWOOMBA aged care facility that opened last year was found to have failed several requirements of the Aged Care Quality Standards.
Toowoomba
Don't miss out on the headlines from Toowoomba. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A TOOWOOMBA aged care facility that opened last year was found to have failed several requirements of the Aged Care Quality Standards.
Infinite Care Mount Lofty was visited by officers from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission on April 29 for an "assessment contact".
The state-of-the-art facility was opened in early 2019 and cost about $30 million to build.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson PSM said the commission had found the service to be "non-compliant with five requirements of the Aged Care Quality Standards".
The Chronicle asked Infinite Care what issues were identified by the ACQSC and what Infinite Care was doing to fix the situation.
Infinite Care refused to comment, citing the "confidential nature of reporting with the agency and the privacy and confidentiality of our residents".
Ms Anderson said in this instance, the performance report from the Commission's visit (on April 29) was not published on its website.
"Performance reports resulting from assessment contacts conducted from July 1 are now published on the Commission's website," she added.
When the Commission identifies noncompliance with the Aged Care Quality Standards, the service is required to make improvements to address the noncompliance as early as possible.
Ms Anderson said in situations of noncompliance, the Commission would monitor the service while it is working to return to compliance and will conduct a further assessment of performance at a later date.
"If the service fails to return to compliance, the Commission has a number of regulatory mechanisms available," she said.
"Depending on the extent of the noncompliance and any findings of risk to consumers, possible regulatory treatments include issuing a direction, a notice to remedy, a noncompliance notice or a sanction.
"The Commission also has the power to vary or revoke a provider's accreditation."
If anyone has a concern about an aged care service, complaints can be made via the Commission's website www.agedcarequality.gov.au or by calling 1800 951 822.
Recent visits from the Commission to other Infinite Care facilities in Queensland found the Ipswich facility was non-compliant with one requirement of the Aged Care Quality Standards, while its Cornubia facility was non-compliant with two requirements.