Inquest finds COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented at Sydney aged care facility

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An inquest into the deaths of 19 residents of a western Sydney aged care home during the pandemic has found some may have been preventable, blaming a failure of leadership and staff shortages for some of the issues that emerged.

Transcript

00:00Some of the family members of Newmarch residents who died say they feel vindicated. This is

00:07after the coroner found at least three of the deaths may have been preventable and in

00:12several cases residents could have avoided becoming infected with COVID altogether. The

00:17inquest examined the deaths of 19 people during a COVID outbreak at the Western Sydney Nursing

00:21Home in April and May 2020 when 37 residents became infected. It found there was poor leadership

00:29insufficient communication and staff shortages which led to an inadequate level of care.

00:35One of the key issues raised was the decision to treat sick patients at the nursing home

00:40rather than take them to hospital which may have slowed the rate of infections at the

00:45aged care home and in some cases it would have given patients a higher level of care

00:52which may have led to different outcomes. Now one of those people was 93 year old Alice

00:56Bacon. Her daughters have long argued that her death was preventable and today it was

01:02found that may have been the case. What we have thought, our family have thought since

01:08mum passed has today been proven correct. The coroner's supported and said that yeah

01:16mum's outcome could have been very different had she been cared for. Taken out of there.

01:23She wasn't cared for and that was the reason that we have spoke up through the whole episode

01:31and finally today we've indicated that we've spoken up. The inquest found Anglicare failed

01:39to provide adequate leadership to its staff and the lack of chain of command led to frontline

01:44staff becoming confused. Families also struggled to get information about their loved ones

01:50and many of the problems raised came down to workforce shortages including some residents

01:55not being given their meals or medication and some oxygen cylinders not being kept full.

02:01The boss of Anglicare also spoke after the findings were handed down. At the beginning

02:06of the inquest Anglicare offered an apology and I'd like to reiterate that apology today.

02:12Anglicare is sorry. We are sorry for the distress experienced and the loss of life

02:20during the COVID-19 outbreak at Newmarch House for the residents, the families and their

02:26loved ones. It's taken two and a half years for the findings of this inquest to be handed

02:30down and today the coroner apologised for that and the stress that it may have caused.

02:36He didn't make any recommendations but noted Anglicare has already made a number of changes

02:42to the way it operates.

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