Michaela Meade
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Heritage Care Epping Gardens is “not fit” to hold accreditation as an aged care operator, according to Scullin MP Andrew Giles.
Speaking in federal Parliament late last month ahead of the release of final report from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Mr Giles described the deaths of 38 people following a COVID-19 outbreak at Epping Gardens last year as a “preventable tragedy”.
According to Mr Giles, an independent report released last year found that frontline workers hired to fill staffing gaps at the nursing home had little experience in aged care.
“I remain deeply concerned that Heritage Care Epping Gardens is not fit to hold accreditation as an aged care operator,” Mr Giles said.
“[The report found that] poor infection control, inadequate emergency planning and deficient leadership at the facility were also significant factors in these tragic deaths.
“It’s clear: this facility needs to be better managed.
“We owe it to those who lost their lives to learn from this tragedy and never see it repeated.”
The royal commission’s final report, which was released last Monday, found there was “unacceptably high levels of substandard care” across the country’s aged care system.
Commissioners Tony Pagone and Lynelle Briggs made 148 recommendations including a new aged care act, a minimum quality and safety standard for staff time and more funding.
In response to the report Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced $452 million in funding to address immediate concerns.
Mr Giles last week told Star Weekly the final royal commission report highlighted “appalling neglect” in the aged care system.
“The final report shows the scale of the challenge that we have to grapple with,” he said.
“It’s really important that we do justice to the findings.
“We need to come together to find a response, as a nation.
“I hope [the report is] a wake up call not just for Epping Gardens but across the community.”
Mr Giles said a “real failure of regulation” was clear.
“What we’ve seen here is a pattern of concerning issues… and what happened in the pandemic highlighted those issues,” Mr Giles said.
“We should have had a regulatory system in place that prevented this from happening.
“Those issues should have been obvious to the regulator and providers.”
Nicole McGuinness, whose mother died after contracting COVID-19 at Epping Gardens last year, said aged care is in a “total mess”.
“What my family went through was horrific,” Ms McGuinness said.
“I don’t want this to ever happen again.
“Elderly citizens deserve so much better than what they have.”
Ms McGuinness said she hoped the royal commission would bring about change.
“I just want to see change. The system has failed and we need to fix it.
“I’m sceptical about these reports… [there is] a lot of truth I don’t think goes into them.”
Heritage Care was approached for comment.
