Freemasons Home Lindisfarne: Masonic Care Tasmania ‘deliberately’ omitted key information during coronial inquest

A Tasmanian aged care provider “deliberately” gave partial information to a coroner investigating the death of a patient amid an environment of “substandard” care.

Freemasons Home Lindisfarne, now known as Derwent Views. Picture: File

A Tasmanian aged care provider, which has since been subsumed into another company, “deliberately” gave partial information to a coroner investigating the death of a patient amid substandard care.

Coroner Simon Cooper released his report on Friday into the death of Freemasons Home Lindisfarne resident Peter Joseph Guy, 82, on April 23 last year.

Mr Guy died of hypostatic pneumonia 22 days after he suffered a fall at the home, now known as Derwent Views after Masonic Care Tasmania (MCT), the home’s operator, was bought out last year by Ulverstone-based Respect Aged Care.

Freemasons Home Lindisfarne, now known as Derwent Views. Picture: File

Mr Cooper blasted the “poor” co-operation he received from MCT as he tried to get to the bottom of how Mr Guy’s fall, in which he sustained an L2 compression fracture, occurred.

According to Mr Cooper’s report, questions were sent to MCT regarding whether Mr Guy had a history of falls at the facility.

“By way of reply, in a letter dated 4 July 2022, Masonic Care Tasmania (the operators of Freemasons Home) only provided details of falls for the three months leading up to 1 April 2022 – amending the question and omitting information in relation to the fall in which Mr Guy suffered a compression fracture of his spine, and omitting any information in relation to any earlier falls,” Mr Cooper said.

“It is apparent that the response was deliberate. Whether it was deliberately misleading is unclear.”

Mr Cooper concluded MCTs level of co-operation was “poor” and the care Mr Guy received at the facility was “substandard”.

Jackie Howard, Masonic Care Tasmania's chief executive at the time of the death of resident Peter Joseph Guy, 82, and subsequent engagement with the coronial process, which Coroner Simon Cooper found to be "poor". Picture: LinkedIn

“The evidence indicates that the Freemasons Home do not appear to have used bed alarms or any other sensory or mobility type alarms for Mr Guy, despite repeated falls, clear evidence of wandering and well documented evidence of worsening confusion in the wake of each fall,” he said in his report.

“A bed alarm would not have prevented Mr Guy’s fall on 1 April 2022 but it would have led to a quicker response.

“Moreover there is no evidence of bed rails being used by the nursing home. Bed rails would almost certainly have prevented the fall.”

Mr Cooper noted that, shortly before Mr Guy’s death, an audit found Freemasons Home “was non-compliant in relation to 7 of 8 standards assessed”.

In response to the draft coronial report, Respect said it was “disappointed that the response provided by Masonic Care [as part of this investigation] appeared to be misleading and omitted certain facts’,” Mr Cooper said.

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When contacted by the Mercury, Respect chief executive Jason Binder defended Respect’s record of care and noted it would be “unfair for us to make judgments in retrospect without context from management at the time”.

Respect Aged Care chief executive Jason Binder. Picture: LinkedIn

“Respect has a 100-year history of high-quality care which includes full co-operation and transparency with coronial inquests in the interest of public safety,” he said.

“We have confidence in our systems and staff and have a strong track record of compliance as an organisation.

“All new homes joining Respect undergo a transformation to our organisation’s policies and processes, which includes best practice falls procedures, and this transformation occurred at all former Masonic Care Tasmania homes including Freemason’s Home.”