CAST OUT AND DISRESPECTED

A WEEK after being turfed out of his home in July, dejected Earle Haven resident Geoffrey Sweet shrugged his shoulders and told the Bulletin: “Nobody gives a crumpet.”

The Gold Coast grandfather was sleeping in an armchair at a foreign aged care village after that fateful night on July 11 when he and 70 of his friends were taken by emergency crews because of a dispute between the owners of his Nerang nursing home, People Care and subcontractor HelpStreet.

Mr Sweet quickly became the unwanted face of the sorry debacle as families searched for answers and futures for their loved ones.

“The meals were ordinary and acceptable just, but it was my home,” he said of Earle Haven at the time.

“All I packed was a shirt, shorts and some undies. Everything else, all of my possessions, are still back there.

“We have been told nothing.

Eight days later I am still here. Somewhere, somehow, somebody knows what is going on.”

That was almost two months ago. Inquiry after inquiry we have heard of national failings in the aged care sector. Lack of staff, the use of psychotropic medication to restrain patients, abuse and maggots in the ears of the elderly.

But what has become of the 71 decent people who not too long ago lived at the Earle Haven nursing home? How many bigwigs have kept in contact with those families in the weeks following the fallout?

The Bulletin has kept in regular contact with Mr Sweet. Reluctantly, he has given up on his hopes of returning to Earle Haven and is just about to move into an aged care home in Brisbane near his family, which has been proactive in trying to sort out the mess.

In his last conversation with the Bulletin, Mr Sweet said he felt Earle Haven residents were being treated like a “box of Cornflakes left sitting on the shelf”.

He spent two and a half years making friends at the Nerang home, but knows he will never see many of those people again. The madness of July 11 was his goodbye. Now he hopes the dozens he has not heard about in the past two months are OK.

It is extremely painful and stressful for the families of these vulnerable patients to move them at this stage of their lives. Seniors and pensioners enter retirement villages with an eye to where they might end up when illness strikes.

Earle Haven staff on all sides of the bitter dispute have broken down at different times when remembering the people they cared for. Unfortunately, it is just another chapter in a story that is being conveyed nationwide as the hidden workings of the aged care sector unravel at inquiries throughout the country.

People such as Geoffrey Sweet have become the forgotten people of this sorry saga when, in fact, they should have been front and centre. These people worked hard all their lives to make society a better place. They raised families, contributed to communities. Still do.

Yet the best they get in times of need is to be turfed out of home without answers. Surely we are better than that.