Health by Natasha Bita, Kyle Wisniewski 29th Jan 2021 5:16 AM
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Exclusive: A Queensland nursing home has been declared an immediate and severe risk to residents after a surprise swoop by government inspectors. An investigation by News Corp Australia can reveal that 26 Australian aged care homes have current sanctions or compliance orders imposed by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), after unannounced audits. In Queensland, the ACQSC found an immediate and severe risk to residents at the Southport Lodge nursing home on the Gold Coast. A new audit report, released only this week, reveals ACQSC slapped a sanction on the home last month, banning it from receiving taxpayer subsidies for any new residents for six months.
Health by Natasha Bita
Premium Content Exclusive: Newmarch House, where NSW s deadliest COVID-19 cluster killed 17 elderly residents, is among the aged care homes which have been busted breaking coronavirus rules during the pandemic. Government inspectors uncovered ongoing COVID-19 breaches in 15 nursing homes - nine in NSW, four in Victoria and two in Queensland - despite the deaths of 685 Australians in aged care from the coronavirus last year. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) cut short the accreditation of Newmarch House in Kingswood until May 14 this year, after it failed an unannounced audit in July. Deficits were found in staff infection control practices and cleaning of equipment including during the COVID-19 outbreak, the audit report states.
Victoria s deadliest aged care coronavirus outbreaks faced poor infection control and severely depleted staff , review finds
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DecDecember 2020 at 9:50am
More than 30 people died with coronavirus at the Epping Gardens Aged Care home, in Melbourne s north.
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Frontline workers hired to fill staffing gaps at two coronavirus-ravaged nursing homes had little experience in aged care and spoke just basic English, an independent review finds.
Key points:
Some 95 per cent of Australia s coronavirus aged care deaths happened in Victoria
Challenges in both homes included depleted staff levels and an over-extended contact tracing system, the review found
Staff had little to no infection control training and spoke poor English Medical staff are seen preparing to transport people from the St Basil’s Home for the Aged Care in Fawkner which has had an outbreak of COVID-19. Photo: AAP /David Crosling
21 December 2020 4:50pm
Victoria’s second coronavirus wave saw 820 people lose their lives with 45 and 38 of those being residents of St Basil’s Home for the Aged and Epping Gardens Aged Care respectively.
A recent independent report revealed that frontline workers hired to replace furloughed staff at the two Victorian nursing homes were not equipped enough to deal with infection control.