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The last residents being removed from St Basil ’ s in 2020 . Photo : Andrew Henshaw
Held to account
Inquest into St Basil ’ s ’ handling of COVID outbreak hears shocking evidence .
By Eleanor Campbell and NCA NewsWire
Victoria ’ s chief health officer Brett Sutton signed off on furloughing staff at St Basil ’ s despite being unaware of an inadequate surge workforce , an inquest has heard .
During Melbourne ’ s second wave of COVID-19 , 50 residents died inside the Greek facility after all of its staff were stood down .
Of the 45 people who died after contracting the virus , five residents passed away as a result of neglect .
Sutton said that he did not inquire about any welfare concerns for the residents prior to approving the takeover .
“ I wasn ’ t in a position where I knew if the surge workforce was inadequate ,” he said .
“ The specific request given to me was around the issue of persistent noncompliance with the direction given by public health orders .
“ The task as I saw it for me was to make sure that decision and that direction was put into effect .”
On July 21 last year , a Commonwealth sourced workforce was sent into St Basil ’ s to care for its 117 residents after an infected staff member had worked two shifts .
The shortage totalled almost half of its 66 workers on the following day .
Council assisting the coroner Peter Rozen said the needs of many “ highly dependent residents were neglected to a point that a number presented at hospital dehydrated , malnourished , suffering from serious pressure sores and in very poor general health , in addition to being COVID-19 positive ”.
Sutton agreed that he never confirmed with the federal government whether the replacement workers would make up for the loss of staff .
“ It ’ s very clear there are these awful tradeoffs in the provision in care and welfare against the risk of transmission .”
The court then heard that the St Basil ’ s manager at the time , Kon Kontis , told the health department that he would not vacate his staff unless he was ordered to .
Sutton upheld that if the facility had moved staff earlier further COVID-19 cases could have been prevented .
When asked who would ultimately be held responsible for what had happened at St Basil ’ s , Sutton said that he did not know .
Former Victorian deputy chief health officer Dr Simon Crouch said he was given brief “ assurances ” from the Commonwealth that they would be able to make up for the loss of workers .
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This should never happen again , our elderly deserve better than this .
INFECTION BREACHES , RUSHED HANDOVER AFTER WORKERS FURLOUGHED Infection breaches and poor communication prevailed after St Basil ’ s aged care staff were furloughed .
St Basil ’ s cook and kitchen hand Connie Apidopoulos told the inquest into the deaths the handover was “ rushed ” and she could foresee “ so many mistakes ”.
Apidopoulos told the hearing she turned up to work only to be told the government would be taking over and she ’ d need to do a handover .
She said she explained the preparations to ensure residents ’ meals were not confused but the girl she was handing over to seemed overwhelmed and there was no time to do it properly .
“ We were being rushed . I could see so many mistakes that were going to happen ,” she said .
“ I even went through infection control with this girl and she seemed lost .”
She later recalled many of the new workers weren ’ t doing things correctly but she was told to step away .
At the same time , the residents were getting upset , asking for their food and medicine .
When she returned to the facility three weeks later , food was rotting in the fridge .
“ I couldn ’ t believe my eyes . I was shocked as nothing in the kitchen pantry and fridge had been touched .” llija Avramovski , a personal care assistant working at St Basil ’ s dementia unit , said there was poor communication about the outbreak from the managers . He said staff were told on July 13 that a worker there had tested positive and all staff and residents were to be tested .
But he had worked alongside a close contact of the first positive case four days earlier and said he should have been told then .
“ If everyone had been told about the first positive Covid test when the managers knew , and staff did not also work in other areas of St Basil ’ s , then I think we could have had less infection at St Basil ’ s ,” he said .
Avramovski , who still has problems breathing after catching the virus ,
2 agedcareinsite . com . au