THE coronial findings into a death at the Docker River aged care facility have revealed elderly patients were without supervision from 6pm until 6am.
ABC's Lateline program will report tonight on the case of Dulcie Brumby, 72, who fell into a fire pit in the aged care facility 300km from Uluru on June 14 last year. It was a death described as "predictable" by Northern Territory Deputy Coroner Celia Kemp.
Leaving off that there was no supervision in the home at night and it was a Government funded home, the fire pit was cut into the verandah of the home.
Now I might be mistaken, but wouldn't this give your normal OH&S rep apoplexy? Not to mention the legal eagles who look after the interests of an organisation? The beautiful rose bushes at the local war memorial were ripped out years ago, far too dangerous. The same fate befell rosebushes at a school I know of. The costs in case of an injury were too great a risk.
What the hell was a fire pit doing in a verandah? If it was necessary, why wasn't there a fence around it?
Lack of supervision of clients at night doesn't even begin to make me understand the idiocy of a fire pit in the verandah of an old people's home.
More here
and here, too.
5 comments:
Y'know I did aged-care training last year and have a pile of OHS material sitting in front of me. Worked in a few Aged Care Facilities and this Docker River place as described does not resemble one in any shape or form.
I think this reported incident bears as much relation to Aged Care issues as poverty does to terrorism.
It isn't just OHS, Kae. There is a whole accreditation process which any facility *must* pass every few years to remain open.
http://www.accreditation.org.au/
Something has gone very very wrong in Docker River.
If it does not have:
-constant supervision
-a safe environment
or lacks either, then there is no Aged 'Care'.
It sounds to me like scams in India, where some crook throws a bunch of old folks together, feeds them like animals, and collects their welfare cheques (they have pensions now in India!).
Hi Bruce
This bit jumped out at me:
Leaving off that there was no supervision in the home at night and it was a Government funded home,
I know they're supposed to be accredited, that's what they need to get the government funding.
It's all so very wrong.
Fraud. But as an aboriginal friend once pointed out, aboriginal welfare system is riddled with fraud - and criminal neglect and abuse.
It's not really surprising, aboriginal/funding seem to just lend themselves to fraud.
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