The federal government has ordered an independent investigation into the handling of complaints against a NSW nursing home.

Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot today asked the independent aged care commissioner to examine the Department of Health and Ageing's handling of complaints about the Peninsula Village facility at Umina on the central coast.

The family of an elderly resident, who suffers from dementia and is unable to speak, has made a number of complaints about the facility, Fairfax reported today.

The woman's family said she fell in 2005, breaking her pelvis and arm, and the injuries went undetected by staff for three days.

She was allegedly physically abused by a nurse in 2005 and left in a urine-soaked bed in 2004.

Police are also investigating after two staff members allegedly sexually assaulted two patients in separate incidents at the facility in the past two months.

Mrs Elliot said an audit of the 263-resident home had already started, while officers from the department yesterday made an unannounced site visit to check whether it met reporting and police checks requirements.

The investigation, to be led by Aged Care Commissioner Rhonda Parker, would also include meeting the family who made the complaints and an examination of the actions of the department's Complaints Investigation Scheme (CIS) and its predecessor, the Complaints Resolution Scheme.

"It is important that there is a thorough and independent examination of the Department of Health and Ageing's handling of the complaints," Mrs Elliot said.

She said she had written to the secretary of the department to request staff cooperate with the investigation.

She said the alleged sexual assaults were now a matter for the police.

Source: AAP