Australia: Deaths in Perth nursing home underscore aged care crisis
Police are reportedly investigating the death, on April 6, of an 89-year-old female resident at Regis Healthcare Limited’s Nedlands Aged Care home in the Western Australian capital of Perth. The death followed those of two other residents in the past three months that were the subject of police investigation and reports of neglect and abuse.
One was 86-year-old Brian Hunter, who died on January 20. Two days before Christmas, according to an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “7.30” program, he was discovered to have been left on the rooftop terrace of the nursing home, unsupervised, for nearly two hours in the middle of a heatwave where temperatures peaked at 40 degrees Celsius.
The story behind Regis Nedlands shocking failures to meet basic aged care standards
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Dik, Brian and Vera s families paid top dollar for them to live at a lovely nursing home, but damning reports from the aged care regulator and allegations by a group of trainee nurses tell another story.
WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
It was two days before Christmas last year when Lea Hammond received a call from her father s nursing home in Perth saying an ambulance was taking him to hospital. There was a heatwave that day, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.
âNo criminalityâ involved in deaths at Nedlands aged care home: police
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A police investigation into allegations of abuse at a Nedlands aged care home following the deaths of two men has uncovered no evidence of criminality.
Officers launched a probe into Regis Nedlands last week amid claims of rough handling, aggressive staff, sexually inappropriate behaviour, and understaffing resulting in people not being bathed.
Dik Lee, 94, died in hospital on last week.
Credit:Nine News Perth
But a WA Police spokeswoman said on Friday no proof of criminal behaviour had been found by investigators and police would prepare a report for the coroner over the menâs deaths.
Police are examining the deaths of two aged care residents in Perth as part of an investigation into allegations of abuse, which were revealed by work experience students. Detectives recently launched a probe into allegations at Regis Aged Care s Nedlands facility, in Perth s leafy western suburbs, and on Friday police confirmed two residents had since died. The circumstances surrounding their deaths will be reviewed, police said in a statement. The two residents who died this week are great-grandfather Dik Lee, 94, and an 86-year-old man. University students alleged they saw the wheelchair-bound and unclothed Mr Lee being dragged along the floor in his own faeces.
Two elderly men's deaths are being investigated by the major crime squad to determine whether alleged abuse at an aged care home contributed to the fatalities.