Aged Care Royal Commission: Managers sent to intimidate wife of aged care resident, commission hears

The wife of a resident at a Launceston aged care facility says she had to actively rally staff just so her husband could be properly hydrated.

JUDITH King says she had to actively rally staff at the Glenara Lakes aged care facility just so that her husband could be properly hydrated.

Mrs King gave harrowing details of her husband’s treatment at the Launceston facility on the second day of Hobart hearings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Associate Professor Neville King, 72, is an expert in cognitive and behaviour therapy and was honoured last year as an Officer of the Order of Australia and for his service to medicine and medical education as an academic, researcher and author.

AO Associate Professor Neville King.

Dr King had been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease and entered the facility in July 2017, because Mrs King had a range of health issues of her own and could not continue to care for him.

It did not take long for her to notice her husband going downhill.

Mrs King said the deterioration in her husband’s behaviour had “come on suddenly”.

“He was disoriented, agitated and anxious. He was somebody in a lot of discomfort,’’ she said.

Mrs King engaged a specialist from Melbourne who identified Dr King was experiencing “acute delirium due to acute dehydration”.

Judith King, who gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Aged Care in Hobart today. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Mrs King told the commission she had to campaign staff for a fluid chart to be put up in her husband’s room.

“It took 11 days for me haranguing management as to why the chart hasn’t been started,’’ she said.

“I was going in every day because he was desperately thirsty. By the time I would get in, I would give him litres of water.”

Mrs King said she was assured the situation would be addressed but said it did not happen.

“If my husband was a dog I could call RSPCA and have him seized and he would get better care there,” she told media after giving evidence to the commission.

When she escalated the matter to a more senior level, she said she felt intimidated.

“I felt each time they wanted to bring in the area manager and a couple of them, with respect, were dragons,’’ she said.

“Shouldn’t say that, but they were. They were brought in to intimidate and I just sat there and thought ‘this is wrong’.”

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On August 15 last year, Mrs King took her husband out for a weekly trip to the cinema and said he was agitated and uncooperative, which she said was a sign of him not having his medication.

“I spoke to the registered nurse on duty and I was assured [Dr King] was given medications at 4.30 and he had done that personally,’’ she said.

“And I said to him, ‘well that’s interesting because I took Neville out at 3’, he wasn’t there and the drugs were signed for. The drugs had not been administered.”

Mrs King also raised concerns about toileting regimes and her husband not being properly washed, and Dr King not being taken for regular walks despite him being able.

Mrs King said she was motivated to give evidence to the commission in the hope that the sector would change for the better.

“I felt so disappointed people in aged care are being treated in this manner,’’ she said.

“I thought by making a statement for the greater good because this is very hard to do …. Hopefully we’ll be able to change the situation, not only for my husband but for all of us.”

The hearing continues.