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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-17 Daily Xml
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Kindred Living Aged Care

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:51): Minister, do you believe it's appropriate that an aged-care facility is able to change its name, as Kindred has done, in an attempt to distance itself from the poor reputation its former name had? Is this another example for the installation of CCTV cameras in bedrooms?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:51): If the honourable member might allow me to answer the second question first, the honourable member would appreciate that this government is extremely interested in the potential for CCTV to improve the quality and safety of aged care. I would be interested to have that conversation with the Premier—sorry, the honourable member. Perhaps he will be Premier in another life, but he is still only an honourable member at this stage.

I would be interested to have a conversation with the honourable member as to how he thinks CCTV would help in relation to scabies. I appreciate there might be other issues in the care of the facility but I suppose what comes to mind is there is nothing like boots on the ground and eyes looking at the problem. I know that the honourable member had concerns about the suspension of unannounced visits during the pandemic, and I think he would agree that CCTV is only part of a constellation of safeguards that are needed. So we are certainly keen to explore the opportunity for CCTV.

The question the honourable member raises in terms of a name change is an interesting one because it has been raised in the context of Ann Marie Smith; the name of a service provider, particularly the name of a worker who might be identified as a risk to patients and then they change the name and the like. So it is an issue. To be honest with you, I have no idea of the circumstances in which Kindred Living adopted its new name. I think it was previously known as Whyalla Aged Care. Mind you, it's not an unusual sort of name now. I am thinking of a number of facilities around the state that have names of that ilk, so it might just be a more humanising, more homely type descriptor.

Be that as it may, I will be certainly interested to know whether the timing of the name change might correlate with some of the earlier reports. I noticed there was a comment on the item last night in terms of complaints. I think there was a suggestion that there were four complaints in relation to scabies and two of them were still open. It's something that I will be interested to see in terms of the period over which those complaints occurred; when were the commonwealth sanctions put in place and what was done in response to them?

Certainly, my office's conversations with Minister Colbeck's office highlights the determination of the commonwealth to ensure that appropriate standards are being delivered at Kindred Living.

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