Families of St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner have called on the Federal Government to shut down the home and move all the residents to hospitals.
As reported here yesterday, relatives gathered outside the home in a desperate plea for information after calls to the facility went unanswered for days, forcing some family members to peer through windows to check on their loved ones.
20 residents from the Fawkner home were transferred to private hospitals over the weekend, but families say they are concerned for the welfare of the remaining residents.
“The place has got to be shut down. It’s unsafe,” said a relative whose 91-year-old mother was treated in hospital for COVID-19 over the weekend, only to be told on Monday that she would be transferred back to St Basil’s within hours.
Nine residents from St Basil’s have already died and the total number of coronavirus cases linked to the facility has jumped from 78 to 86 on Tuesday, making it Victoria’s second-largest aged care outbreak.
On Monday night, a Victorian Health Department spokesman said most residents of St Basil’s were “being carefully transferred to hospitals with appropriate capacity and care” – while noting the Federal Government is the main regulator of aged care.
