Aged care has dominated the focus following the recent coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne which has swept through nursing homes.
There has been criticism of the state government’s handling of COVID-19 in relation to aged care, with St Basil’s in Fawkner dominating much of the spotlight as it has been the hardest hit facility.
Criticised as to why it took five days for the federal government to be made aware of the residents who tested positive to coronavirus at St Basil’s, Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews said, “I don’t accept that that the public health team did anything other than the very best job they could in full accordance with protocols.”
He was critical of the management of St Basil’s, under the aegis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. “I’m not here to have a crack at people at St Basil’s, but I will say one minute we didn’t do enough, and the next minute we did too much,” he said.
“There’s a lot of emotion in that. There’s not much to be gained by me trying to unravel that. We sent an entire workforce home because we did not have confidence that they were putting in place infection prevention and control. And that’s what we did. And we were criticised for that. Now, apparently we have been criticised for not doing enough. So, again, there’s probably not much to be gained by having a public stoush with the people who run that place. There are other forums where the adequacy of the response will be tested.”
READ MORE: Chaos, class action and coronial inquiry into what went wrong at St Basil’s
Mr Andrews said the coroner would look at the issues surrounding St Basil’s.
He said that the federal government response was one of the issues raised so far in the Aged Care Response Royal Commission. “I’m not going to respond to that and run a commentary on the adequacy or otherwise of arrangements that other governments have put in place or private sector providers or agencies have put in place,” he said, adding that he is “exclusively focused on supporting residents and their families”.
