RESIDENTS of a COVID-19 infected Hunter Valley aged care home have been moved out of their private rooms into a dorm-like situation, amid claims they are sharing just one toilet and no shower.
Up to 14 residents at Lara Care Aged Care Dungog, run by RSL Life Care, have been living in a room set up a week ago to accommodate people who test positive to COVID as an outbreak control measure.
The Newcastle Herald understands that frail and elderly residents, some in their 90s, are among those who have been moved from private rooms.
One resident told her lifelong friend there is just one toilet, with too few staff to respond to calls for assistance, including from those with mobility issues who are being forced to make their way without assistance.
According to the resident, In some cases they have had to mop up urine spills after other residents before using the toilet due to staff shortages and the demand for amenities.
RSL Life Care denies those claims, saying that while they have set up a "larger room that is more spacious, with extra ventilation" out of "an abundance of caution", at no stage has any resident had to clean up urine, and there were "no staff shortages or demand for amenities, of which there is more than one toilet and shower available". In fact, additional staff had been provided to assist, according to the operator.
The nursing home is one of 12 in the Hunter New England region currently battling a COVID-19 outbreak in what is the fourth wave of the pandemic to hit the nation.
Someone close to a resident at Lara Aged Care, who did not wish to be named, said it just "doesn't seem right".
While the resident was "quite incapacitated" when it comes to walking, mentally the resident was "a hundred per cent" and was shocked at what was occurring. Up until now, the resident has had no complaints about the quality of care provided at Lara Aged Care, she said.
"One poor man was wandering around and didn't know where his bed was," she said.
"Nobody's doing anything ... I think they don't know what to do."
As a former registered nurse, she understand how things were "meant to be" and was concerned about her friend who was very upset.
"My friend has been devastated with the situation," she said. "The nurses are good but say it's out of their hands as it is a directive.
RSL Life Care says residents were consulted before being moved, along with a next of kin family member, and that "at no stage has any complaint been raised or registered with any staff member of the home (either by affected residents or family members."
It also said that both NSW and Commonwealth authorities were satisfied with the home's practices, procedures and care in place.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said the commission was aware of the current COVID-19 outbreak at RSL LifeCare Limited's Lara Aged Care service. The circumstances alleged were concerning, she said.
"We are taking immediate action to investigate them. Should we find the provider not meeting their obligations, our assessment of the risk to residents at the service will inform our response and the decisions we make."
RSL Life Care runs more than 20 aged care homes throughout NSW and the ACT, four of which are subject to current non-compliance notices.
Reports from Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission assessors reveal a broad range of issues at those homes including poor and ineffective infection control, including during an outbreak in 2021, staff and visitors not wearing masks covering their nose per the NSW Health guidelines.
Other identified issues include residents being left on toilets unsupervised, and being forced to take risks mobilising without assistance when they couldn't wait for staff to attend to them.
"Consumers often have to wait extended periods of time for staff to assist them to use the bathroom, resulting in incontinence," one report said.
Other areas of non-compliance included deficits in pain, wound and psychotropic medication management, and in management of "high impact and high prevalence risks", including conducting neurological observations post falls, skin and pressure area care, and inconsistent adherence to medical directives.
Health authorities have urged people to stay away from Christmas gatherings if they have even mild respiratory symptoms as the latest COVID wave has so far left 12 nursing homes in the region battling viral outbreaks.
Hunter New England Health says it cannot release the names of the nursing homes for privacy reasons.
The number of patients diagnosed with COVID in HNEH hospitals has jumped from the teens to 44 last weekend, aged care outbreaks have tripled and sewage sampling shows an increase in viral fragments.
