news said staff also should have been wearing masks and PPE sooner to protect themselves .
“ There was not good communication about the Covid outbreak from St Basil ’ s office staff ,” he said .
Ana Pokric , personal care assistant in the dementia unit , said she was tested on July 15 at work but nobody told her she had to self-isolate afterwards .
Even after the first positive case at the facility , there was a general lack of hygiene and wearing of PPE , and staff didn ’ t always communicate issues in handover notes , she said .
She said professional training on using PPE and general infection control did not happen until September .
Dr Naveen Tenneti , a health director at the Victorian department of families , fairness and housing , was pressed on whether he and his colleagues had failed to learn lessons from the earlier Covid outbreak at Sydney ’ s Newmarch House aged care facility , where 19 residents died after an outbreak between April and June last year .
“ I ‘ d say to the best of my recollection that there was limited information available at that time around precisely the learnings or failings that occurred from that outbreak ,” he said .
RESIDENTS BEGGING FOR MEALS AND MEDICATION Branka Lyons told the coroners court that her father , Jakov Pucar , 90 , was a “ breathing skeleton ” after not being fed by staff .
At the time , Jakov suffered from Parkinson ’ s disease and was unable to swallow whole food .
“ I don ’ t believe my dad had anything to eat the whole time they were there ,” she told the inquest .
“ Mum would be able to eat some things that were served , but dad could not because there was no pureed food for him .”
She recalled speaking with her mother , Slavka , who told her that during the outbreak she had found a resident from the dementia ward in her bed and had overheard staff talking about knowingly coming into work with COVID-19 .
“ That was evidence that proper measures weren ’ t taken to protect the residents from the spread ,” said Lyons .
“ I don ’ t believe there were any restrictions to keep residents in their rooms prior to the handover .”
Lyons also told the court that a nurse had administered morphine to her father against her wishes .
In a recorded phone call , personal care worker Robert McDougall told Lyons that he had found piles of uneaten food trays in people ’ s rooms and heard residents “ begging ” staff for food and medication .
“ It ’ s the worst I have ever seen in my life ,” he told her .
“ I lost a man in one wing yesterday and it was completely avoidable .”
Lyons gave a tearful plea to the coroner in her closing statement . She asked the court to hold St Basil ’ s and the government to account on behalf of the residents and families .
“ This should never happen again , our elderly deserve better than this .”
A ‘ CHAOTIC STATE OF AFFAIRS ’ Aspen Medical National was paid $ 45 million to deploy staff to the nursing home . The deal was part of an agreement to provide “ world class ” nursing teams into aged care homes suffering COVID-19 outbreaks .
“ The Commonwealth was not only looking for Aspen to provide staff , but to provide staff that were capable ,” Peter Rozen told the coroner .
Rozen told the court that the majority of the Aspen medical staff sent into St Basil ’ s had only been registered in 2020 .
The coroner heard that Aspen had arranged for just 11 nurses to visit the infected site , with most having less than two years of practical experience .
When they arrived , they were met with a “ chaotic state of affairs ”, according to Rozen .
“ It is unsurprising that these very junior professionals were overwhelmed by the experience and that several refused to return to work after a few days ,” Rozen said .
“ Sadly , a number also contracted COVID-19 at St Basil ’ s .”
Aspen national clinical manager for COVID-19 Kristi Payton spoke of the disarray staff had witnessed on the first day they came in .
Emails between Payton and her superiors highlighted “ serious concerns ”, which included residents being left in bed and unshowered till 11am .
“ The efforts on the ground were quite remarkable in terms of what people were trying to do but there was an avalanche of issues ,” said Payton .
DEATH WAS ‘ MANSLAUGHTER ’, VICTIM ’ S DAUGHTER TELLS COURT Maxine Tsihlakis told the inquest that she believed her mum Georgia Mitsinikos ’ death was a form of “ manslaughter ”.
Her 87-year-old mum died in hospital from coronavirus on July 23 , three days after Tsihlakis was told she had tested negative to the highly contagious disease .
Tsihlakis was also frustrated staff members were still working when they tested positive to coronavirus .
Staff were “ run off their feet ”, Tsihlakis told the court , and she took her mother to a GP after noticing she ’ d been put on extra medication and discovered they included sedatives .
Tsihlakis told the court she didn ’ t see staff members wearing masks when she and her brother visited their mum during the pandemic .
Her evidence came before Victoria ’ s health department director of human services and public health policy Naveen Tenneti offered his sympathy to the families of victims .
Dr Tenneti told the Coroners Court he was involved in “ nearly every significant case or outbreak ” in the state .
“ All those decisions weigh on me , just as every patient I treated in a clinical setting weigh on me ,” he said .
“ That weight obviously can ’ t match the experience of a loved one and I express my deep sympathies to them .”
He was also probed about the decision to stand down St . Basil ’ s staff and replace them with agency workers , and concerns over the potential neglect of patients .
The decision was a balancing act of whether it was riskier to allow staff to be “ incubating ” the virus and spreading it to others as well as the potential issues with continuity of care for residents and their needs , Dr Tenneti said .
“ We weren ’ t making a decision with the knowledge that there then would be an insufficiently sized or capable workforce replacing them ,” the doctor said .
“ The very premise of the decision was to conduct this quarantine ( of staff ), there would be an appropriate handover and hence the workforce that came in and replaced would be able to exercise and manage any care needs .”
It was an “ incredibly difficult ” decision , he said . ■ agedcareinsite . com . au 3