Elder Abuse and Neglect: Elderly at Risk in Filthy Nursing Home (Mel. Australia)

Elderly at risk in filthy nursing home
By Jill Stark
September 4, 2008

ELDERLY residents at a Melbourne nursing home were put at "serious and immediate risk" by filthy conditions and staff who were "too busy" to feed people gave out the wrong medication and failed to report violent assaults.

Faeces was found in bedrooms at the Patricia Gladwell Aged Care Home in Brunswick during a Federal Government inspection that discovered residents had been left to wet themselves and staff lacked basic training.

The home faces closure after a damning report revealed it had breached 30 of 44 minimum standards, resulting in "widespread risk to residents' health, safety and wellbeing".

Hygiene control was so bad that the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency warned of the potential for a serious outbreak of a food-related illness such as gastroenteritis. They found a trolley that was used for food delivery, waste disposal and dirty linen.

One resident was repeatedly taken to hospital to have a catheter changed because staff at the 60-bed facility did not know how to. Overworked employees were found to be too busy to deliver food or medication on time. Some residents were given incorrect or excessive prescribed drugs.

Staff also failed to act when violence broke out in the home. When one resident punched another in the face, the only action was to move the attacker so they could "settle down".

Procedures for evacuation in the event of an emergency such as a fire were also found to be flawed. "The enormity of systems and process failures across all standards has created an environment in which residents' clinical care is seriously compromised," the report said.
The audit, carried out two weeks ago, comes after the owners of the home failed to act on complaints that relatives claim date back to its opening in 2005.

Action was taken only when complaints were forwarded to the Department of Health and Ageing. The home has sacked its senior staff and appointed a specialist nursing adviser for six months, as ordered by the department. All remaining staff must undergo training in clinical care, medication management, food safety, infection control and elder abuse reporting.

Greg Prouse, who owns the home and the attached Vaucluse Hospital, cannot take on any new residents over this period and the facility could be shut down if all standards are not met.
A relative whose 73-year-old mother is a resident told The Age the problems were "systemic" at the home, which had had eight directors of nursing in three years.

"Basic care was lacking, there didn't appear to be any training for staff, they didn't even know how to change my mother's catheter," said Katrina, who did not want to give her surname.
At a meeting on Tuesday night, about 50 relatives were told of the sanctions against the home.
Acting chief executive Diane Sullivan said the home had hired external cleaners and staff were receiving training.

Source: The Age
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