Its Investigations unit is asking residents, families, staff members and volunteers to share their experience with aged care homes with this survey HERE.
“We keep hearing horrifying stories about abuse, malnutrition and neglect in nursing homes. Are these isolated cases or is there a widespread problem? Tell us about your experiences,” it reads.
The fresh scrutiny into the sector follows Adele Ferguson’s retirement village investigation and Michael Bachelard’s aged care series for Fairfax Media last year.
The ABC has already started its investigation, running a story on Blue Care’s Pioneer Lodge facility in Queensland on the 7.30 Report last Wednesday.
The piece highlighted its failure of 15 of the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency’s (AACQA) 44 accreditation standards in an audit in December last year using a copy of a confidential memo which said staff left residents without showers and unfed because of time constraints.
7.30 also featured an interview with a woman whose mother was a Pioneer Lodge resident – she alleges that staff failed to identify the infection that led to her mother’s death and blames a lack of staff and training.
Blue Care has responded to the ABC with a statement saying it was working with external advisers including a senior industry nurse adviser to improve its processes at the home and that a recent AACQA visit on 27 March provided “very positive feedback”. It has also denied any of its staff’s actions contributed to the woman’s death.
But the survey tells us they will not be the last provider to come under the ABC microscope.
