Missing files, dishevelled areas, incomplete drug registers is what director Konstantin Kontis found on his return to St Basil’s Home for Aged Care.
Banned from the facility he managed since 22 July, he returned to a residential home “turned upside down” after being emptied of residents last Friday. Deep cleaned, but “despite the fact that the premises are declared safe for occupation they are far from ‘the home’ that we left on Wednesday, 22 July,” he told Neos Kosmos on Friday as a gradual return of 80 patients scattered around Melbourne’s hospitals is expected in collaboration with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (AQSC).
AQSC Commissioner Janet Anderson said new residents would only be admitted once risks have been adequately addressed, but the “chaos” is the least of Mr Kontis’ worries following dozens of deaths at the facility, where the second largest outbreak in Victoria took place.
Confusion reigns supreme following a coronial investigation into what went wrong, specifically in the case of five deaths, though there have been dozens. Mr Kontis told Neos Kosmos that the inquiry has to do with the Outbreak Management Team which took over from the regular staff under the aegis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.
READ MORE: 470 COVID-19 cases to be announced today as reports of investigation into St Basil’s deaths surface
Judge John Cain has asked Victoria Police to compile evidence about the deaths at St Basil’s Home for the Aged.
Families of residents who died at St Basil’s aged care home have welcomed the investigation into what went wrong at the Melbourne facility, even though its scope is currently limited to just five deaths.
The coroner says the focus of the investigation will be determined once evidence is provided to the court, though Saint Basil’s management told Neos Kosmos that it did nothing wrong.
Angry relatives disagree. Lawyer John Karantzis of Carbone Lawyers is currently representing more than 100 relatives of residents in a class action suit to be filed this week. They accuse both St Basil’s and Epping Gardens Aged Care, owned by multimillionaire aged-care moguls Tony Antonopoulos and Peter Arvanitis, of negligence which resulted in damage and injuries to the residents entrusted to them.
“We want to send a message to nursing home operators that this can’t happen again,” Mr Karantzis states, demanding an admission of fault and negligence.
He says that the coronial inquiry is relevant to the class action as industrial manslaughter laws which went into effect on 1 July 2020 may be relevant to the claims of his clients. “Operators may have breached manslaughter laws,” he said. “They are paid to take care of these vulnerable people, and our clients allege they did not do so.”
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Mr Kontis, however, states that almost all the complaints lodged with the Complaints Resolution Group of the ACQSC related to the period after 9am on 22 July when regular staff had been replaced. At that time, family members had tried to get in touch with loved ones but nobody answered any of the numbers they had. It is claimed that care was inadequate and residents were left soiled and unfed.
Neos Kosmos has seen the report of the first positive case of one staff member to the government authorities on the day it was discovered by St Basil’s on 9 July, and relatives were informed on 10 July.
“We feel that the leaking of the proposed coronial investigation has been strategic in origin, with the sole aim to damage St Basil’s reputation and cast doubts on our level of care which we defend fully,” Mr Kontis said, adding that he would cooperate with any investigation.
Mr Kontis states that a State of Disaster has been declared for all of Victoria, and there are more than 100 homes battling with the virus. Back in charge, the regular management is trying to make sense of what happened in their absence as files are allegedly missing. There are allegations that the care of residents wasn’t properly documented during the fortnight Australian healthcare company Aspen Medical took over the management of St Basil’s under federal government contracts worth $1.2 billion since March.
READ MORE: Relative of former St Basil’s resident says compromised care ‘not our experience’
Sons and daughters of residents have spoken to Neos Kosmos about the loss of their loved ones, dying alone. They remember the last time they saw their relatives, the initial confusion and despair, and the lack of communication when staff at St Basil’s were replaced by the government’s nurses.They speak of loved ones being left soiled and unfed when federal agencies took over, but also speak of negligence of regular staff members in following COVID-19 safety procedures.
Relatives are now in the process of collecting belongings of the deceased as well as those who have been discharged. “This task proved harder than we anticipated as everything in the home was dishevelled when we returned,” states an email released to residents by St Basil’s management. “In any case, this has now been completed to the best of our ability as we have had to rely on labelling as well as staff recollection and recognition in most instances.”
After a national cabinet on Friday, the commonwealth and the states agreed to codify a response to aged care so that they’ll have a plan in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak in an aged care home.