Senator Richard Colbeck has confirmed that more residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Western Sydney aged care are expected to pass away – and the advice he has is that a number of the 16 deaths that have already taken place could not have been avoided.
Speaking to Patricia Karvelas on RN Drive on Wednesday night, Minister Colbeck said:
“My advice is that there are some more that will pass away as a result of the virus. It is a significant outbreak and it just demonstrates how devising it can be once it gets into a population of people with a number of other co-morbidities in an aged care facility. These are the devastating and tragic results.”
“Minister, do you actually have advice as to how many people are at risk of potential death in that home?” Ms Karvelas asked.
“Look, there are a number of others who are … still quite frail, and are COVID positive and so we are expecting that there will be some more pass away. Obviously, we pray that as few as possible, but this is the effect of this disease.”
However, the Minister maintained that some of the deaths at the home were unavoidable.
“Talking to infectious disease specialists, given the scale of the outbreak, it may be that they wouldn’t have been avoided unfortunately because you’ve got a significant outbreak within a facility that’s spread quite broadly and we’re seeing the tragic effects of a COVID-19 outbreak in a very vulnerable community.”
Asked if the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) should have appointed an independent adviser soon, the Minister said that the ACQSC had already intervened twice at the home by arranging staff from BaptistCare’s Dorothy Henderson Lodge to work in the home (who are leaving this week for their own wellbeing, according to a statement from Minister Colbeck) and facilitating improved communication with residents.
“There were still some concerns from the regulator’s perspective and so the intervention today involves an independent adviser to come provide oversight and of course I support that. All our interests all the way through this process have been that of the residents.”
Minister Colbeck also disagreed that the home should be shut down – and said the situation at Newmarch has consistently improved over the past three weeks.
“I don’t think that’s the case. Clearly, there have been some issues that’s demonstrated by the regulatory action that’s been taken but there are a number of residents in there who are very happy with the care that they’ve been receiving.”
“We are in a very, very unfortunate and tragic circumstance where COVID-19 has had the opportunity to spread very broadly before we became aware of it.”
“I’m very satisfied with the staffing levels that are required to manage the outbreak and provide appropriate care to the residents that are within the facility… the communications have significantly improved.”
“There’s no question that things have improved within the facility.”
Interestingly, Ms Karvelas raised a point made by a listener via text message that had 16 children died in a childcare centre, people would be marching on their streets.
“Do you feel like we treat these kinds of outbreaks in aged care homes differently, and that we value life differently?”
The Minister acknowledged that Australia’s attitude to older Australians – identified in the Royal Commission’s Interim Report – may have played a part in how the outbreak was treated.
“It’s not a concept that hasn’t been recognised before,” he said.
“The concept of moving people out of the facility has been on the table since day one, but [NSW Health] Minister [Brad] Hazzard and I and even the Quality and Safety Commission have been working with those officials in the best interests of the residents and all of the decisions that have been taken have been in that interest.”
You can listen to the full interview here.
