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Aged Care System Failing
Date: 08 January 2003
The Health Services Union of Australia is sending in inspectors to a Melbourne nursing home after a horrifying report on the conditions facing staff and residents.
The Girrawheen Nursing Home in Brighton is one of nine in Victoria which in the last year have failed to meet standards of care set down by the Federal Government's Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency.
Union inspectors are being sent to the home this week to carry out an urgent inspection to see if management is continuing to fail in its responsibilities to staff and residents.
HSUA National Secretary Craig Thomson said the home had failed accreditation standards relating to infection control, hygiene, nutrition, the safety of residents, access to specialist care, staff training and consultation.
''The findings are shocking including urinals being left on meal tables and residents wandering into the wrong beds,'' Mr Thomson said.
''But there is also a serious question of why no public alert was issued by the Federal Government when this report was completed in September and why sanctions were not imposed as they should have been to at least stop any new residents coming into an environment that was unsafe and potentially dangerous.
''Clearly there were inadequate staff numbers at the home to properly care for patients and that is why the union is campaigning for the reintroduction of minimum staffing levels and minimum standards of care in all homes which the Federal Government opposes.''
The president of the Victorian No1 branch of the HSUA Jeff Jackson said there were no union members currently working at the nursing home.
''Where there are no union members there is not going to be the type of scrutiny that would allow the whistle to be blown on a home like this before things reached the terrible state that they have,'' he said.
For further information
| Contact: |
Mark Robinson
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| Union: |
Health Services Union of Australia
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| Phone: |
039 341 3330
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| Contact Mobile: |
0439 411774
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