A Victorian nursing home fails 30 standards out of 44. How did it get to this? 

There are issues with hygiene, nutrition medication delivery and much more. The latest audit by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency has revealed these problems – thankfully, at last. That is what the Accreditation Agency is there to do because these are people who cannot speak for themselves. They just have to take what they get – in terms of care and respect. And clearly these residents were taking buckets and buckets of poor care and neglect – and for some considerable time.
But the thing that is so worrying about this is that it is reported that action was only taken after complaints were forwarded to the Department of Health and Ageing. Relatives of residents claim that the complaints go back to 2005 when this place opened. It is also reported that the facility has had eight directors of nursing in three years. Now you would think that that, in itself, might tell somebody something.
No wonder people are frightened of being placed by their family in a nursing home when they hear of such things.

This columnist is not surprised by what has been found, given the huge, unresolved staffing issues around aged care.

I also think that the public need to know what is going on behind some of these closed doors. But it should never be allowed to get to this stage.

It seems from the reports that some family members knew that the care provided at this facility was way below standard.

The question is … why was their voice not heard?