industry & reform
‘Worse things than death’
NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper
ABC’s Four Corners finds
mismanagement at the centre
of Newmarch outbreak.
By Conor Burke
The ABC’s Four Corners program
turned its attention to the
Newmarch House COVID-19
outbreak and found mismanagement,
poor infection control and a lack of
communication with residents and families
at the centre of the cluster which saw
19 people die.
The episode, titled ‘Like the plague’,
followed the outbreak from its first days,
when a COVID-19-infected staff member
worked six shifts, and over the course of
the six-week saga. It documented the
torment and heartache suffered by the
families of residents trapped inside with
little-to-no information provided about
loved ones.
Residents were “sitting there waiting
to die” said the families, confined to their
rooms with unanswered calls, cold and
receiving little food or face to face contact.
One resident who tested positive for
the virus wasn’t able to shower for twoand-a-half
weeks as no staff were around
to help.
Another resident was left alone in
their room after a fall and another
was left sick and struggling with
undiagnosed pneumonia until family
intervened.
Four Corners identified poor
infection control as one reason the virus
was able to spread unfettered through
the home.
14 agedcareinsite.com.au
As the pandemic unfolded and staff
were forced into isolation, the home faced
a workforce crisis and Australian Nursing
and Midwifery Federation federal secretary
Annie Butler told reporters that the use
of underqualified personal care workers
as replacements would have exacerbated
the spread.
“There’s no minimum requirement
mandated for care workers in the industry.
So, there can be people who have no
training at all, or who have done a socalled
online aged care course, who
can be available to work in the facility,”
she said.
“You can be the best-intentioned
person in the world, but when you don’t
know what you’re doing, it can be very
difficult.”
Many residents who eventually
tested positive for coronavirus say they
hadn’t left their room for weeks prior to
their diagnosis.
IN-HOUSE PROBLEM
Another major failure in the handling of the
outbreak was the decision to keep COVIDpositive
residents in the home instead of
transferring them to hospital. The home
was also criticised for not separating
the COVID-positive residents from the
negative residents until 22 days after the
onset of the outbreak.
Of the 19 residents who died in
Newmarch house, only one died in hospital.
Compare that to the other large aged
care cluster at Dorothy Henderson Lodge
in Sydney, where swift action was taken
and 80 per cent of positive cases were
sent to hospital for treatment.
NSW Health would not allow concerned
families to take COVID-negative residents
out of the home to protect them.
An Anglicare spokesperson told families
this was to “reduce and contain the risk
of spread. I understand as a public health
order it may be legally enforceable”.
NSW Health then threatened a resident
and his family with an $11,000 fine and up
to six months in jail if he left the home.
The man later died of COVID-19.
Families have accused Anglicare and the
government of sacrificing their loved ones
to protect the wider community.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Throughout the ordeal, families say they
were kept in the dark. They often took
matters into their own hands, keeping vigil
outside the home in protest, and reaching
out to several media outlets to hold
Anglicare to account.
After 18 days of the outbreak – which
saw 56 positives, 22 staff, 34 residents and
12 deaths – Anglicare erected fencing
around the home, totally cutting families
off from loved ones.
One family member described this
measure as “a corporate response, not a
humane response”.
Communication to the residents was
also criticised. One resident only found out
she tested positive for COVID-19 after she
stuck her head out of her room door, only
to find a sign warning people not to enter.
A family member had to call to confirm
she had the virus.
Anglicare Sydney CEO Grant Millard’s
handling of the outbreak came under
scrutiny as he did not appear at a meeting