How a disaster unfolded Brief to Coroner sheds new light on St Basils deaths
Conditions had become so horrific at St Basilâs Homes for the Aged in Fawkner during its deadly COVID-19 outbreak last year that some residents tried to bash down the centreâs front door to escape the disarray and find food, former staff have told State Coroner John Cain.
Leaked documents from the police investigation, seen by The Age, provide graphic new details of the disaster that unfolded inside the Greek Orthodox Church-run home, and the chaos that ensued once a federally funded âsurgeâ workforce entered it.
Used PPE and other waste piles up outside St Basilâs in Fawkner at the height of last yearâs deadly outbreak.Credit:Penny Stephens
One site report compiled at the height of the outbreak in July 2020 found there was âno physical distancing [among temporary staff] ⦠clinical waste bags lying in corridors, piled up in corridors, in residentsâ rooms (left open), multiple dirty meal trays lying around [the] facilityâ.
A senior Northern Hospital doctor, Sandra Brown, whose team visited during this period, warned of âresidents starving to death and dying of dehydration from basic care needs not being metâ.
A personal care assistant at the home later told police: âThere was a male resident smashing the front door trying to get out ... He was screaming about food. He was saying he was hungry.â
A separate state Health Department report said the resident was âtrying to smash glass front doors, threatening to kill everyone if not let outâ. The resident was later transferred to hospital.
The police documents reveal the federal governmentâs Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission learnt of the St Basilâs outbreak on July 10, 2020, but did nothing for another four days. There were 117 residents at St Basilâs and 120 staff when the outbreak began, but the failure to contain it meant only 49 people who lived or worked there avoided a COVID-19 infection.
Forty-five residents, with an average age of 85, died of COVID-19.
Judge Cain on Monday begins a six-week inquest into Australiaâs deadliest coronavirus outbreak, which took place over one month beginning in July last year.
Christine Golding, whose mother, Efraxia, 84, died after contracting COVID-19 at St Basilâs, will appear as the opening witness. Ms Golding said on Sunday she wanted the âtrue story of what happened to my motherâ to emerge: âWhy she caught COVID-19, why she was neglected, why she suffered and why she died.â
Christine Golding and her mother, Efraxia, at St Basil's.
One veteran nurse, Catherine Pring, who worked at a private hospital but volunteered to help care for residents at St Basilâs, told police investigating the homeâs failings on behalf of the Coroner that she had not seen for decades the kind of pressure injuries and wounds she had encountered at the home.
âThere was one woman who stood out to me. I observed a pressure sore. I hadnât seen an injury like that in 20 years. It hadnât been dressed and looked nasty. You were able to see into the wounds and see the tendons.â
She told police she saw many pressure injuries and also believed it was âobvious that there were incorrect meals being provided to residentsâ.
Police reports compiled for the inquest show residents who survived St Basilâs and were evacuated to hospitals were found by medical staff to be âdehydrated, malnourished ⦠and in very poor general healthâ. One senior nurse brought in to help at the height of the outbreak was shocked to find St Basilâs 24-bed dementia ward unattended by a single staff member.
The report also shows management at the home spent just $6950 on personal protective equipment for staff between January and July 2020. By comparison, the operator of a group of aged care homes where there were no coronavirus cases â" also located in Melbourneâs north and north-west, where outbreaks were rampant last year â" spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on PPE.
In 2019, before the outbreak, St Basilâs had been given the highest quality rating by the Aged Care Safety and Quality Commission, and St Basilâs management passed their own self-assessment of COVID-19 readiness in April 2020. In June 2020, a state Health Department infection-prevention team visited and was also âquite positiveâ about the homeâs preparations.
But a care worker told police this was an illusion. âThe week before [one visit], the outbreak staff were running around putting up signs and posters about social distancing, handwashing. Trolleys were stacked with extra PPE, with things like hand sanitiser and gowns, which were seldom on the trolleys. It was all fake, and only done when the commission came to inspect.â
The police documents show a staff member was the âindex caseâ who brought the virus into the home in early July. The personal care assistant worked for four days while her family members had sore throats.
The St Basilâs outbreak was among a cluster of aged care disasters in Victoriaâs second wave in 2020.Credit:Justin McManus
That staff member, whose name has been suppressed by the Coroners Court, was sent home after a relative tested positive. But few of her colleagues were told why she was sent home. Some staff she worked with were still coming to work three days later.
St Basilâs chairman Kon Kontis has so far declined to talk to police about what unfolded at the home, relying on a section of the Coroners Act that provides protection against self-incrimination. Mr Kontis and Vicky Kos, the head of nursing when the outbreak unfolded, are to appear before the Coroner on the final days of the hearings.
Mr Kontis told Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton in mid-July last year that the church should keep control of the home, which the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has run at the Fawkner site since 1991.
When the Andrews government wrested control of the facility from the church and handed it to the federal Department of Health to manage, the âsurgeâ nursing staff sent in to care for residents were met with a home in disarray.
Heleni Bagiartakis, a senior manager from another Greek nursing home who tried to help at St Basilâs, told investigating police that from there, it went âfrom crisis to crisisâ. After attending for one day, âa number of staff refused to attend. They simply did not show upâ.
Private medical provider Aspen Medical, the company the Morrison government contracted to supply staff, could not secure enough experienced workers. A nurse from the company told police that some care assistants âdidnât know how to shower residents, as they had been previously employed in community care to do housekeeping and shoppingâ.
Communication between St Basilâs and worried families also broke down during the outbreak. A call centre set up by the federal Health Department to update relatives often gave wrong information.
One resident, Theodoula Andreou, was taken from St Basilâs to Glenferrie Hospital. A doctor from the hospital phoned Ms Andreouâs daughter-in-law and said the 85-year-old barely had a pulse and was dehydrated. During this phone conversation, the daughter-in-law missed a call from the Health Department call centre, which later called back and told her âthat Theodoula was in her room [at St Basilâs] and doing wellâ. Ms Andreou died that day at Glenferrie Hospital.
On July 21 last year, the day the first resident at the home died with coronavirus, reports show St Basilâs management, federal and state health department officials and Canberraâs aged care regulator arguing over who would run the centre.
After being ordered out by Professor Sutton, St Basilâs management left the centre entirely and declined to provide further help. The police brief says that, on July 22, contractors were forced to visit the home to program new security access cards because âSt Basilâs management would not leave their own cards for incoming staffâ.
The police brief to the Coroner says the fire brigade had to be called to force locks to let residents back into rooms because âthere was no master keyâ.
And a senior nurse from another Greek nursing home, Fronditha, who had offered to help, was told by Ms Kos that âunder no circumstances was [she] or any other member of St Basilâs to be contacted about the clinical care of the residentsâ once they left.
The nurse told investigators Ms Kos had assured them âeverything we needed was on the filesâ, but âwe very quickly found that was not accurateâ.
Clay Lucas is a senior reporter for The Age. Clay has worked at The Age since 2005, covering urban affairs, transport, state politics, local government and workplace relations for The Age and Sunday Age.Connect via Twitter, Facebook or email.
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