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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-18 Daily Xml
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Pearce, Ms D.A.

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:29): I would like to place on record a time line of events that have happened over the last few weeks in respect of Debra Ann Pearce.

Debra Ann Pearce, aged 62, had resided in supported care accommodation for most of her life. She had an intellectual disability and she had mobility problems. She needed assistance with all her daily living and, from the reports I have had from family members and other acquaintances of hers, Debbie would often be seen clapping happily and singing songs and out in the public and basically making the best of her life with support.

During the course of the last four-odd weeks, I have been exposed to some stories about failures in care and, when I received an email on 1 June from a person who was particularly worried about an incident that had occurred at their residential care facility at Pooraka, I immediately called this person to inquire what they wanted to share. I was told that on the night of 1 May leading into the 2nd, Debra was being attended to by a single worker. The person who spoke to me said they had been told that this was against procedure and could not for the life of them work out how this would happen, that one person would be attempting to deliver this care.

During the course of that care, Debbie proceeded to overbalance in the bed and, I am told, was grabbed by the leg, which then fractured. Debbie was transferred to Lyell McEwin Hospital and, as happens with people who then are put into a hospital bed with a major leg fracture, she became unwell and passed away on 9 May. It was 1 June when I received an email. I asked what had been happening. The main concern was that the night worker was still working and attending to residents and that there had been no investigation done.

This person had escalated it through the managerial levels of the department, she had evidence of this and she was very concerned about the procedure of the incident report. She understood that these incident reports went to the directors in the department and to the minister, and she could not understand why nothing was happening. It was not long after that that she told me that another investigation had been triggered. In fact, since this time a couple of weeks ago, I understand that someone has been stood down pending this investigation.

This person who told me was not the only person who reported this to me, but the only person who has put it in writing. They were extremely distressed, upset and felt aggrieved. During the last two weeks, I have had numerous conversations with this person, and I have also reached out and spoken to several family members who provided consistent stories. I made sure I had absolute permission from them to escalate this through the parliamentary process and ask questions.

I was satisfied that there was an investigation being undertaken by that point. Although it was slow, it certainly happened. I felt that the process hopefully was going to come to the conclusions that it needed to come to. But why did it take so long and why are there so many people who are so desperately upset and aggrieved that they felt they had to reach out? The family are very upset that this has happened to their sister.

The family does not want people in the residential facility, who gave excellent care for many years and were lovely to Debbie and were her family, to get into trouble at all, but they do want an investigation into this. They absolutely did not give permission for any statement to be released to the media yesterday or today. They are aggrieved that that has happened. They were misled by the person in the department who rang them yesterday afternoon and a person who rang this morning and left a message, who they will not ring back or talk to.

They have spoken to me on a number of occasions today, and it is not appropriate that any employee of the government has a conversation with someone and puts information out into the media about them without their permission. This is the shameful thing—not that there is any lack of care by me; I have been providing that support for the last two weeks—and it is shameful.

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