Months after the coronavirus pandemic swept through aged care homes killing more than 600 elderly residents, government inspectors have uncovered COVID-19 breaches in 15 nursing homes.

Auditors from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) “observed numerous examples” of staff breaching guidelines of the Victorian Health and Human Services for infection control in a performance review written last month.

St Basil’s home in Fawkner, operating under the aegis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, was found in a follow-up audit in July to not have a pandemic management plan “complete in readiness for future outbreaks” despite the fact that 45 of its residents had died of COVID-19 last year. It was also found that staff were not changing gloves as required.

Melbourne woman Kathy Bourinaris, daughter of 77-year-old St Basil’s resident Fotini Atzarakis, said she doubted whether anyone would ever be held accountable for others like her mother, who died at the Austin Hospital after a 10-day battle with COVID-19 which she caught at her nursing home.

“WorkSafe are doing an investigation, but I don’t know if we will get much of a result. It could end up just being a slapped hand.”

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Ms Bourinaris said St Basil’s were still operating with the same staff. “We don’t even know if they’ve been retrained, or if there is a COVID plan – we know nothing, zero.”

Weeks after her mother died, Ms Bourinaris’ family was contacted by a staff member to ask if they wished to take a tour of the facility.

Apart from St Basil’s there were breaches found in four aged care facilities in Victoria, nine in NSW and two in Queensland.

Staff at Glendale Aged Care in Werribee, southwest of Melbourne, owned by Allity Pty Ltd, were found to be breaching Victorian Health and Human Services guidelines for infection control four months after 25 residents and 18 staff were affected, resulting in the death of three residents.

“This included numerous staff not wearing face masks and face shields as required, staff not observing social distancing requirements, staff not donning/doffing PPE appropriately, staff wearing gloves while walking around the facility,’’ ACQSC states.

“The assessment team found that the service was unable to demonstrate the minimization of infection related risks as staff PPE practices are inconsistently monitored and do not align with infection control guidelines.”

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Fronditha Care was one of the facilities which followed COVID-19 guidelines.

“Fronditha Care has always observed the highest care standards and safety protocols,” Fronditha Care’s President Jill Taylor (Nikitakis) told Neos Kosmos. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic added a layer of disruption to many of the usual way of doing things for us, but we acted quickly in 2020 to ensure we mitigated risks and met all compliance requirements. The aged care sector more broadly has seen many changes in a short space of time, as the virus is known to disproportionately affect older people and for some providers this has been exceptionally challenging.  Fronditha Care however, like the majority of leading providers, was diligent across the past year and continues to build on its excellent record of care. Further the Board and staff have ensured safeguards and systems are in place for observing current COVID-19 protocols to comply with government guidelines and relevant regulation and we have built flexibility in our processes to ensure we remain complaint if requirements and standards change.”