Over 120 residents and staff at RFBI Concord Community Village aged care home are now living in fear after the aged care home was ordered to close its doors after three residents were taken by ambulance to Concord Repatriation General Hospital – the site of a growing COVID-19 cluster – despite staff requesting the residents be taken to Auburn Hospital.

There have now been 14 positive cases linked to the Concord and Liverpool Hospitals after an infected doctor worked between their two emergency departments, with over 100 staff asked to self-isolate for 14 days and the hospital closed for cleaning yesterday.

Frank says he was only contacted by the local Public Health Unit (PHU) at 9am on Thursday morning – three days later – and told the three residents had been exposed to a possible risk.

The home was ordered to isolate all 62 residents to their room and for all residents and staff to wear full PPE. At the time of publication, RFBI had not been advised how long the lockdown would need to last.

The PHU representative said their manager would call back – by 4:30pm, Frank had still not received a call.

The CEO contacted Health Services Union (HSU) Secretary Gerard Hayes, who advised him that he was meeting with the NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, and would inform him of the situation.

“The feedback from Gerard was that he was as unimpressed as all of us,” Frank said.

Frank was told that NSW Health would contact him to explain and apologise – again, he had not received a call by 4:30pm.

However, he understands that Mr Hazzard has spoken to the Chief of the NSW Ambulance Service and issued a directive that aged care residents are not taken to known hotspot hospitals.

The three residents who were transferred have been swabbed and are now awaiting their test results, but Frank is angry that the residents and 60-plus staff have been placed at risk.

“To put at risk lives of 120 people because they wouldn’t listen to us when we pleaded with them – to say I’m upset is an understatement,” he stated.

The CEO adds that the Not For Profit already has strict screening procedures in place for residents returning from hospital – including that they must isolate until they receive a negative COVID result and both residents and staff must wear full PPE.

Frank now hopes that the situation does not happen again – and the authorities can work with providers to protect residents and staff.

“We all need to be pulling in the same direction because at the end of day, it is aged care providers who are at the coalface,” he said. “To have people that you would normally rely on being professional place us at such a risk and ignore us, it really is not acceptable and I think all providers should stand their ground in the future if something similar happens.”