Janet Anderson defends Quality and Safety Commission’s support of Newmarch House – says they will continue to monitor home through to August 2020

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner has hit back at claims in Monday night’s Four Corners report that criticised her and the Commission’s involvement in the outbreak at the aged care home. Janet Anderson PSM has released a statement, saying that the Commission has been “actively engaged” with Anglicare and the Newmarch House management since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak there on 12 April.

“This has involved daily contact with Newmarch House management through a small interagency forum with health authorities established to coordinate respective roles,” she said.

The Commissioner then went on to list the regulatory actions taken by the Commission at the home including:

• 23 April 2020: issuing an administrative direction followed by a Non-compliance Notice on 3 May 2020.
• 6 May 2020: issuing a Notice of Requirement to Agree to Certain Matters and Consideration of Sanctions (under section 63U ACQSC Act).

“The Notice referred to breaches of Aged Care Quality Standards 1, 2, 3 and 8 and a finding of immediate and severe risk as a result of failure to take appropriate action,” she stated, adding this notice required Anglicare to appoint an independent adviser (Andrew Kinkade) to manage the outbreak.

The home was also banned from taking on new admissions for the duration of the notice. Anglicare agreed to these requirements the following day with Mr Kinkade starting on 8 May 2020. Ms Anderson maintained that Mr Kinkade’s “knowledge, expertise and experience” had been pivotal in driving improvements at the home. The Commissioner also said that she had:

• Written to the families of Newmarch House residents on 7 May 2020, 22 May 2020 and 19 June 2020 to keep them informed about the regulatory actions and what they mean.
• Met with families of Newmarch House via a webinar hosted by the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) on 12 May 2020 to explain the Commission’s regulatory actions and to hear directly from families about their concerns.
• Met with the board of Anglicare on 2 June 2020 to discuss the approved provider’s management of the Newmarch outbreak and the Commission’s regulatory actions.

Ms Anderson conceded she had not visited the home in person, but said representatives of the Commission and the Department of Health had undertaken a site visit on 15 May 2020 – a month after the outbreak began on 11 April.

“The Commission continues to closely monitor the care and well-being of residents at Newmarch House and to receive daily reports from Anglican Community Services in response to our most recent regulatory action,” she concluded.

A separate letter to families last week advising of the departure of Mr Kinkade said these measures will continue through to August 2020. The statement does raise the question: what is the Quality and Safety Commission’s role? Is it to come in and prosecute providers while their back is against the wall or is to support operators while they are struggling? Surely, their first priority should be the residents – so should they be working collaboratively with operators to ensure they have the best quality of life? It is worth remembering two weeks into the outbreak on 23 April, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned providers with strict visitor restrictions that the Government would step in if they did not allow residents to leave their rooms or receive visitors. Hardly the environment for a collaborative relationship between providers and the regulators.