Two investigations – one by the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service (HHS) and a second by Queensland’s Director-General – are now underway to determine how a nurse at the North Rockhampton Nursing Centre was able to work before testing positive for COVID-19 – and allegedly returned to work while awaiting the test results.
The home – which has around 115 residents and 180 staff – went into lockdown on Friday after the nurse – who reportedly contracted the virus during a trip to Brisbane. She was infectious from 3 May and began showing symptoms on 5 May but continued working.
“We want to understand exactly how it happened, what went wrong, why it went wrong and how we can make sure it never happens again, not just at the 16 aged care facilities run by HHS, but also at all of our other hundreds of Queensland health sites,” Deputy Premier and Health Minister, Steven Miles said.
Mr Miles and State Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young met with management of North Rockhampton Nursing Centre yesterday as an emergency team of 20 nurses arrived from Brisbane to staff the home after more than 40 staff were forced into self-isolation, leaving the home short-staffed.
The CEO of the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Steve Williamson, said on Friday the nurse had also been at the home “after being sent for testing”.
“That’s outside the direction we’ve set for our staff and we will look into that further – in detail – but our focus currently is 100 per cent on ensuring safety in the facility,” he said.
Dr Young has clarified that the woman – an Enrolled Nurse – was working mostly as a receptionist at the home during the two weeks she was infectious.
“She wasn’t providing hands-on care to the residents, which is a good thing because it means the risk to the residents is less,” she said on Saturday.
“But she did have contact with people, which is why we’re being extremely cautious.”
“We’ll now go forward over [the] next 14 days from last Thursday, to assess all the residents, and all the staff, and we’ll have a very, very low threshold for testing any of them who have any symptoms at all.”
70 people were identified as close contacts through contact tracing and forced into self-isolation with 23 residents and eight staff members urgently tested on Friday and testing of the other residents and staff taking place over the weekend.
More than 270 staff and residents have returned negative test results for the virus – “in what can only be described as a miracle” according to Mr Miles.
Over 700 locals were also tested over the weekend with none returning a positive result.
But there is still concern about potential infections at the home, with 35 low-risk residents moved out of the home to Mater and Hillcrest private hospitals by Queensland Health by eight ambulances over the weekend so the remaining residents could have their own rooms in the home.
A sign of the heightened worry around the case in the community, some other aged care homes in the area have also gone into lockdown too.
In a statement, Benevolent Living CEO Alison Moss said its Rockhampton home had gone into a precautionary lockdown for at least the next two weeks to limit the risk of community transmission.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we believe it is in the best interest of our residents,” she said.
