Spying on aged care abusers

Plan for surveillance cameras to protect elderly

SPY cameras would be installed in nursing homes to prevent residents being harmed, under a drastic surveillance plan before Federal Parliament.

Occupational Therapy Australia (OTA) has warned that some personal carers are harming vulnerable old people in nursing homes.

“Video surveillance should be allowed in private rooms … with the permission of residents or their families and guardians,’’ it has told a Senate inquiry into aged care abuse.

“There needs to be greater supervision of residents.’’

OTA told the inquiry that one therapist had “overheard a patient being verbally abused and insulted by a male attendant” while being transferred from a bed to a wheelchair.

It criticised “chronic understaffing”, with residents sometimes “forced to remain in bed all day”.

The OTA told the Senate committee that it is “not uncommon for residents to suffer falls and fractures, or be left bedbound due to a lack of care”.

“A veteran who had suffered a stroke had a leg amputated due to poor nursing care,’’ the OTA submission states. “Many facilities are short-staffed and residents often develop pressure sores as a result of neglect.

“Often family members … are afraid to report cases of elder abuse for fear of how their parent/relative will be treated in future.”

A leading law firm has threatened nursing homes with legal action over the death or injury of elderly residents from lack of care.

Shine Lawyers’ elder abuse expert Leanne McDonald said that short-staffing was “no excuse for neglect”.

“Doctors are failing to provide appropriate medication in some situations, nursing homes are not calling emergency services within acceptable times and lives are being lost prematurely as a result of this abuse and gross negligence,’’ she told the Bulletin. “In some instances, residents are not being provided with adequate nutrition and hydration.”

Ms McDonald said nursing homes that are short-staffed risk being sued over the death or injury of residents.

The Australian Medical Association has accused some nursing homes of doping residents with tranquillisers to make them “easier to handle”.