GOLD Coast grandmother Lorraine Cook (above) smuggled a sandwich into Earle Haven’s high-care facility every day because she was worried her husband John, 84, was not being fed.

She was among the first to blow the whistle about the treatment of residents in the Hibiscus and Orchid houses, informing the Federal Government in February 2019 – five months before the nursing wing was shut down.

Authorities eventually called her in November of that year, four months after the home had been shut and evacuated.

One year on from the tragedy, Mrs Cook says she has little faith left in the system.

“I put in an official complaint about Help Street in February,” Mrs Cook said.

“I got a letter in April saying they were looking into it. I got a call back in November.

“I said ‘well, you are a bit bloody late, we got turfed out in July’.

“She said ‘I am sorry’. I said it was too late to be sorry. She said ‘will you accept our apology’. I said ‘I can’t’.”

Mrs Cook said the complaint was sparked by concerns about food and pressure from staff on families.

“They were trying to force everybody to go to their chemist,” she said.

“Then they brought in their own caterers. They couldn’t eat it, it was that hard.

“I used to take my husband in a sandwich every day so at least he would have something to eat.”

Mrs Cook said she was confronted by staff when they discovered she had complained.

“But the way I see it, whatever goes on in this nursing home is my business, whether it happens to be my husband or somebody else, because you have a lot of people in there who never have family.

“I was there every day. Somebody has to speak up for these poor buggers.”

Mrs Cook, who lived within walking distance of Earle Haven where her husband stayed for three years, now has to catch a bus to see him each day at his new facility, but she is happy to put up with the inconvenience.

“He is in a nice nursing home now,” she said.

“But there still is not enough staff. You see the same patterns as before. You talk to other people. Nothing has changed. It is still the same things going on”