Aged care watchdog puts MercyCare Rockingham on notice over poor care of dying resident

A Perth nursing home has been rebuked by the sector watchdog over poor care, with the family of one former resident calling for it to be shut down. MercyCare Rockingham has been put on notice by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission for a series of troubling issues over the past 12 months, including that it breached standards on the management of a dying resident. The West Australian can reveal that the Cooloongup facility “did not provide the appropriate wound care” and “end-of-life care, including pain management” to 83-year-old Kathleen Whewell, who died on February 3. Her daughter Janet Dunbar said Ms Whewell had a bedsore that developed into an infection in the lead-up to her death after it was not dressed and cared for. Ms Dunbar recounted how she and her husband had to go from chemist to chemist on a public holiday last year to find drugs to help her mother die in peace because MercyCare Rockingham failed to get her end-of-life scripts made up. “They said to me, ‘You’re going to need to go and get the medication’, and I just dissolved. It was unnecessary trauma,” Ms Dunbar said. “On Christmas Day, Mum was writhing in pain. She couldn’t communicate at this stage other than by the look on her face and flicking away if she was touched. “Government legislation needs to be changed so there are legal consequences for the mistreatment of residents.” Ms Whewell’s son, Bernard Whewell, called for the commission to shut down the facility. “The lack of wound treatment was awful to see,” he said. “They need to be able to close this place down. We were horrified by the report. “How could they be found to have been grossly incompetent around her wound treatment and pain relief but because (MercyCare) told them they fixed it, it was able to just move on?” The family claims Ms Whewell was given medication meant for another resident and reports on her wound care were not up to date. A complaint a was made on February 2, the day before her death — and the commission commenced an investigation, which took about six months. The report obtained by The West Australian states Ms Whewell’s bedsore “was not recorded in wound charts as expected”, “the service did not identify and escalate the wound deterioration to the GP . . . as soon as possible” and “that the wound management plan was not consistently followed”. It also states staff at MercyCare have been given training opportunities in wound identification and management, as well as in end-of-life care. Ms Whewell’s care plan was “brief” with no evidence showing she was “regularly and frequently assessed for pain” and progress notes revealed an “unreasonable delay in pain treatment”. In light of the incident, the families of other residents at MercyCare have moved their loved ones to new aged care homes. Linda Harris said she and her sister Janet Moore transferred their mother, Anne Bowman, after seeing what happened to Ms Whewell. “I thought to myself, that could be my mother next,” Ms Harris said. “What I didn’t like was when a resident needed help, they would press the button and no one would ever come. I told them Mum’s been waiting an hour and they said they were busy. “One night, Mum fell out of bed at about 2am and had to call my sister because no one came when she rang the buzzer. My sister had to call the home to get someone to put her back in bed.” A former MercyCare employee supported Ms Whewell’s family’s claims. “They don’t do their observations. Say someone has a fall and hits their head, you’ve got policies and procedures that you’ve got to follow,” the former employee, who asked not to be named, told The West. She resigned earlier this year after working at MercyCare for nearly a decade. Before leaving, she made a complaint to the commission because she said management was not addressing her concerns about the poor care of residents, prompting the watchdog to investigate. “They weren’t listening. No one was taking me seriously. I was done so I rang the Aged Care Commission. In the end, I was ringing them every fortnight to keep them updated,” she said. “Families still wouldn’t even know to this day how (their loved ones) just passed away. One was left on the floor purposely because their pain and agitation weren’t taken care of properly as there was no clinical nurse to get the palliative medicine. “They left him on the floor and that’s where he passed away and then they got him back into bed for the family to see.” Despite identifying faults, the aged care regulator concluded it was satisfied MercyCare had taken action to make improvements and put “appropriate processes in place . . . to mitigate the risk of a similar departure from expected standards of care”. MercyCare Aged Care Services executive director Phil Martin told The West the commission had visited the facility twice this year and on both occasions it had met the standards required. “MercyCare Rockingham is performing above target with an average of 241 minutes of nursing and personal care provided per resident each day,” Mr Martin said. “MercyCare Rockingham is currently compliant with the Aged Care Standards and has no compliance notices in effect.” Mr Martin said he would not comment on individual residents due to privacy reasons. The facility has an overall star rating of three out of five, which is considered “acceptable”, although anything less than five stars indicates a gap between how a provider is performing and how it should be performing. The rating is based on MercyCare’s performance on resident experience, compliance, staffing numbers and quality measures. Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said every aged care provider was required by law to provide safe and quality care and services to residents. “In 2022, the commission found MercyCare Rockingham non-compliant in two of the aged care quality standards relating to personal and clinical care, and human resources,” Ms Anderson said. “The commission conducted an unannounced site assessment contact in January and found that the provider had made necessary improvements and had returned to compliance. “The commission is continuing to monitor MercyCare Rockingham to ensure that it delivers safe and quality care. (This includes) information gathered from complaints, consumer feedback, site visits, compulsory reports from providers and other information.”