The six-week coronial inquest into the deaths at St Basil’s Homes began on Monday.
State Coroner John Cain heard that Australia’s Chief Nursing Officer Alison McMillan visited St Basil’s in Fawkner on 22 July last year, the day after the first death to COVID-19.
She visited the home at the behest of the then chief medical officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, at a time when the removal of the 117 residents was being considered.
At the time, she found the facility as “fit for purpose” and said that there was “no need for a significant evacuation of positive residents to hospital”.
Within a month, 45 residents, with the average age of 85 years, had died.
READ MORE: St Basil’s relatives are “nowhere near healing” despite report acknowledging neglect
In his opening statement, Peter Rozen QC, counsel assisting Judge Cain, revealed new details. He said that when Professor McMillan visited the aged care home in July, a complete evacuation was being considered due to the grim condition within the institution.
Professor Murphy had said he was “very concerned” about the situation during discussions with Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck, and that is why the pair agreed to send Professor McMillan to St Basil’s the next day. Professor McMillan’s assessment of the situation is what resulted in the decision to defer COVID-19 positive residents out of St Basil’s. The inquest heard that the neglect that followed resulted in many patients arriving at hospital close to death, malnourished and dehydrated.
Mr Rozen said that by 24 July “the true extent of the neglect became apparent to those at the highest levels of the Commonwealth and Victorian governments”.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, who had stood down St Basil’s regular workforce after COVID-19 had spread, will give evidence before Judge Cain next week.
He said he gave the direction in the interests of both staff and residents, and this meant that a federally-funded workforce entered the home. The new force was overseen by the federal government and were employed by private contractor Aspen Medical. They entered the home on 22 July, the same day that Professor McMillan visited.
The replacement staff were unaware of the complex medical needs and dietary requirements of the residents, some of which spoke only Greek.
The decision to bring in replacement staff took place even though St Basil’s chairman Kon Kontis and St Basil’s nursing director Vicky Kos warned that this would be dangerous.
Mr Rozen told Judge Cain that within days of staff being furloughed, doctors expressed “genuine concern about residents starving to death and dying of dehydration from basic care needs not being met”.
“A number of senior Commonwealth public servants in Canberra, none of whom had set foot in St Basil’s, were making decisions on 21 July, 2020, about the residents in the teeth of very clear warnings from doctors who were caring for the same residents,” Mr Rozen said.
Families were also critical of the handling of the pandemic. Christine Golding told the inquest that she went to the home on 26 July, two weeks after the first confirmed case of a staff member, in the hope of seeing Efraxia Tsalanidis, her mother. She said she was “very concerned and afraid” as they were unable to get information about their loved ones.
“Some people started banging on the windows, family members, really really hard,” Ms Golding said, adding she saw her mum through the window with her eyes looking “terrible, lost, awful”.
“It was a sense of doom, there was a feeling of impending doom,” she said.
