Apology over care
BUPA has issued a public apology to the family of a resident of one of its Tasmanian aged care facilities.
The family claimed the company was “discourteous and disrespectful” when welfare concerns were raised about elderly resident Shirlee Rankin-Reid, who was living at a South Hobart facility.
A TASMANIAN aged-care provider has publicly apologised after the family of a resident claimed the company was “discourteous and disrespectful” when welfare concerns were raised.
Bupa’s Aged Care, which was the manager of a facility in South Hobart during 2017-18, has issued the apology to Hobart woman Susan Rankin-Reid and her family via a classified advertisement in Saturday’s Mercury.
Ms Rankin-Reid’s mother Shirlee was a resident at the home during that time before her death in 2018 aged 93.
Her family believed she was discriminated against based on her age and disability during that time.
Ms Rankin-Reid said the family raised concerns about Shirlee’s care when she alerted them to a late-night incident in her room whereby money was allegedly taken from her purse.
Bupa South Hobart was at the centre of investigations during the 2019 Aged Care Royal Commission, which found “there was a failure to adequately address comments and complaints at the care home”.
A royal commission report said: “Bupa accepts that feedback from residents and their families was not always acted upon appropriately at Bupa South Hobart and Bupa has taken steps to address this issue at this care home and others.”
The company’s apology to the Rankin-Reid family said the case had provided Bupa “with valuable lessons about the care of aged persons — who are particularly vulnerable — and the role their family members play as advocates.”
Ms Rankin-Reid, who spoke daily with her mother while she was in care and visited her wherever possible, said Shirlee “suffered at the hands of those we expected and hoped would care for her”.
“This apology by Bupa represents years of work by my family to hold the provider and the sector at large to account for the extraordinarily poor standard of care my mother received,” she said.
“When my sister and I complained to the multiple agencies responsible for monitoring the sector, we realised that the indignities and distress experienced by the residents and their families was known to these agencies and yet they were not held to account.”
Bupa regional director Michelle Baker said the organisation was committed to ensuring residents in its agedcare homes received the high standard of care, dignity and quality of life they expected and deserved.
“We know we haven’t always got this right in the past, and we’ve apologised to Shirlee’s family for this,” she said.
“Since this time we have taken significant action to improve the quality of care and address noncompliances at our care homes including improving procedures in quality, resident feedback and care plans.”
Advocacy Tasmania acting chief executive Benjamin Jones said more needed to be done to support the more than 1000 older Tasmanians that each year contact the non-government organisation for support.
“We need to redesign an aged-care system based squarely on human rights, independence, choice, and on making sure people are not abused or neglected by a system they depend on,” he said.
“We are awaiting the release of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s final report in a few weeks. The interim report described a system in need of a fundamental overhaul, where far too often older people are neglected and do not receive the care they are entitled to.”
Tasmanian senator and federal Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck said the government would carefully consider the royal commission’s final report.
“Any abuse of a care recipient is unacceptable and that is why we are committed to implement its Serious Incident Response Scheme this year,” he said.