Manager role for cover-up nurse

Barwon job turnaround

A controversial nurse, found to have led an aged care death cover-up, was set to step into in a management position at Barwon Health.

Catherine Gerardine Condon was a registered nurse and facility manager at an aged care home in Melbourne when a resident with dementia was found dead in a fountain in 2011.

The death was passed off as a heart attack but the elderly woman had been face down in the water for 50 minutes before being found.

Ms Condon and a colleague were found to have kept key details about the woman’s death from her family, police, doctors and other staff. A coroner found Ms Condon was the “leader in the coverup”.

Last year, the Geelong Advertiser revealed she was working at Barwon Health.

Barwon Health hired Ms Condon to work in aged care quality in 2021, and was aware of the incident.

Ms Condon was understood to be set to temporarily fill in as acting nurse unit manager at its Alan David Lodge aged care facility in Charlemont.

However, following inquiries from the Geelong Advertiser, the appointment will not be going ahead.

The organisation is actively recruiting for a nurse unit manager at the lodge.

One source, who wished to be anonymous, said they believed that if Ms Condon did what she had done now – referring to the “cover-up” – she would have received a lengthy aged care ban from the watchdog.

Another source said they felt putting Ms Condon in a leadership role was a poor decision. Barwon Health refused to comment when contacted by the Geelong Advertiser this week, but last year said Ms Condon had demonstrated personal growth.

In 2017, Ms Condon was suspended for three months after she was found to have engaged in professional misconduct by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in relation to the 2011 death.

She was ordered to undertake an education program. The VCAT ruling read: “At the end of the period of her suspension, we have no concerns about her returning to employment as a nurse.

“If we had taken the view that Ms Condon’s professional misconduct meant that she was not suitable for registration as a nurse, we would have cancelled her registration,” it said.

It noted she denied any suggestion that her failure to disclose information was due to intention to make false statements, and she acknowledged she poorly managed the incident but that her conduct, which was out of character, occurred in circumstances that were traumatic.

Aged Care Quality and Safety commissioner Janet Anderson said the commission did not speculate on hypothetical situations.

The Addy last year reported it had been told Ms Condon had acted in managerial roles at Barwon Health aged care facility Blakiston Lodge in North Geelong.