Aged Care Insite Issue 92 | December 2015 - January 2016 | Page 6

news

Carinity scores legal victory
Federal Court agrees with
provider’s request that AACQA
remove references to negative
report from its website.

T

he Federal Court of Australia has
declared that the Australian Aged
Care Quality Agency (AACQA) did
not observe “requirements of procedural
fairness” in reaching its findings against a
number of Carinity Aged Care centres.
Sanctions were placed on the provider in
March by then assistant minister for social
services Mitch Fifield, following an AACQA
review of Baptist Union of Queensland –
which trades as Carinity – that reported a
raft of deficiencies in its Karinya facility in
Laidley and at Kepnock Grove in Bundaberg.
“On February 28, my department received

notification of a serious and immediate risk
from the [AACQA] in relation to Karinya,”
Fifield said in a March 2 statement.
The sanctions required Carinity to
appoint a Commonwealth-approved
adviser, who was to remain in place for
six months. Carinity was also ordered to
train staff on blood glucose management,
dietary requirements, behaviour
management and post-falls management
clinical assessment within three months.
The sanctions were subsequently
overturned in late June, after Carinity
successfully fought to have the matters
reconsidered. The provider also sought to
have the report relating to the findings and
sanctions removed from public view on the
AACQA’s website.
The case was settled in mid December
with the AACQA now required to remove

Photo: Aged Care Services Australia Group

Japara acquires Profke
Expansion gives provider a presence
in Queensland market.

A
6

ged-care services provider Japara Healthcare has
announced the acquisition of the Profke Aged Care Group,
along with its four NSW- and Queensland-based facilities.

agedcareinsite.com.au

“and to keep removed” from its website all
references to the report, along with “any
other reference which might indicate to
the reader that a finding of serious risk was
made” against Carinity.
In orders from Justice Darryl Rangiah,
the Federal Court issued a writ of certiorari,
“quashing the decision” of the AACQA
dated February 27 under the Quality
Agency Reporting Principles that found
Carinity had “placed one or more of its care
recipients at serious risk”.
The court also ordered that AACQA pay
$25,000 of Carinity’s legal costs.
Carinity chief executive Jon Campbell
said his organisation had remained
committed to the welfare and safety of
those in its care prior to and throughout
the proceedings and now looked forward
to concentrating “on our most important
task of enriching the lives of our residents
and supporting their families”.
“In our view, these favourable court
orders vindicate our position from the
outset that there was never a serious risk
to the health and safety of residents at
Carinity’s Karinya aged-care community at
Laidley,” Campbell said in a statement. “Our
working relationship with the agency has
always remained professional. We respect
the agency’s important role and we trust
they respect the vital work of Carinity’s
skilled staff.
“With the litiga ѥ