Kindred Living Aged Care

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:37): Australia's aged-care sector is in crisis, with the royal commission into the quality of aged care due to report within weeks. Evidence given to the commission has been harrowing and heartbreaking. We are failing our vulnerable senior citizens in their time of need. There are dedicated and compassionate workers and operators who do strive to achieve an accepted level of care and, sadly, there are those who do not.

The Kindred Living aged-care facility in Whyalla is one such operator. Its treatment of residents and staff is contemptible. Last year, care workers reported to management numerous times an outbreak of the very painful and contagious Norwegian scabies in Cottage 3 of Annie Lockwood Court. Senior management's reaction to these very serious concerns was appallingly inadequate, almost in denial, despite the outbreak spreading to more patients and a number of workers assigned to the cottage. A consulting doctor warned the rash would spread quickly.

Management had the audacity to blame one resident's husband, Peter Strawbridge, for his wife Heather's infection, saying it was probably caused by mosquitoes during one of the daily walks he took his wife on. Heather was hospitalised for several days for scabies. Cottage 3 is home to residents with severe dementia who are unable to communicate and some of whom do not have regular visitors or family to check on their wellbeing, so they were helpless in telling staff about the pain they were experiencing.

If not for the courage of Mr Strawbridge and whistleblowers who grew increasingly worried by what they witnessed and management's intransigence, who knows what else could have befallen those residents. These brave whistleblowers contacted my office to share their concerns. I then visited the facility at Mr Strawbridge's invitation, along with a crew from the Nine Network's A Current Affair,to see for myself what was occurring inside Cottage 3. I was shocked and heartbroken.

Kindred Living's chief executive, Juanita Walker, tried to play it all down when I met with her, but when A Current Affair exposed Kindred's horror story on national TV, management embarked on a witch-hunt for whistleblowers, who would be protected by existing laws. One worker who inadvertently appeared in the TV story was then wrongfully targeted by management, threatened with the sack and accused, on the balance of probabilities, of privacy breaches—a totally false accusation. I wrote a detailed letter to Ms Walker pointing this out and that this staff member played no part in my visit, yet they continued their appalling conduct.

The media exposure prompted the federal government's somewhat toothless watchdog, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, into action, despite previous complaints falling on deaf ears. In a rare move, commission investigators physically visited the site to interview management, staff and residents. The facility then rushed to clean up its act, throwing out bedding and furniture.

The commission's findings were published on the eve of Christmas and they were scathing. It found the facility posed an immediate and severe risk to the safety, health or wellbeing of care patients. Kindred Living failed in each of the eight compliance standards, including consumer dignity and choice, personal and clinical care, feedback and complaints, and human resources.

It is the third time in three years Kindred Living, or Whyalla Aged Care as it was previously known, a not-for-profit organisation that last year posted a $400,000-plus profit, has been sanctioned by the commission. Then today I received a disturbing photograph of another resident at Kindred admitted to hospital with a gangrenous toe. How could that happen?

I am now writing to its board, asking it to dismiss its inept senior management, the same management in charge for each of the three sanctions. I am also asking the federal aged-care minister, Greg Hunt, how an aged-care facility with such an appalling track record can continue to operate with current management in place and which actually controls the facility that takes millions of dollars in commonwealth funding.

What is it going to take before a facility like Kindred is brought to account? This is why I would like to see CCTV cameras in all aged-care facilities. I welcome today's announcement by my federal colleague Senator Rex Patrick that he is introducing an amendment into the federal Aged Care Act currently before parliament to allow for this technology to be used.