Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Chisholm for her question. Members will be aware that in April 2007 there was a major gastroenteritis outbreak at Broughton Hall nursing home in Camberwell, Victoria. Out of the 22 residents affected, tragically five died. On 17 April 2007, the previous Minister for Ageing announced that Ms Rhonda Parker, who is now the Aged Care Commissioner, would investigate an allegation that a staff member from the Department of Health and Ageing and/or the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency did not respond to calls for help from a Broughton Hall resident. The resident involved was Mr Merson Dunstan, who was in his early 80s. During the outbreak he was taken to hospital and subsequently died. In May 2007, Ms Rhonda Parker’s report was finalised and delivered to the then Minister for Ageing. That was almost 10 months ago and the Dunstan family has heard very little since.

On 7 February 2008, my office contacted Rhonda Parker to inquire about the investigation and express concern about the lack of feedback to the Dunstan family. A day later, on 8 February, Ms Rhonda Parker provided a summary investigation report. I have been advised that the full report was unable to be released publicly due to legal constraints imposed by the Privacy Act. Ms Parker’s investigation has found that, whilst the allegation that departmental staff and/or agency assessors ignored pleas for help was not substantiated by the evidence, she believed there needed to be changes. Ms Parker recommended that during a disease outbreak departmental staff be required to check on actual nursing home residents rather than just examine documentation and meet with management and staff. It is a very sensible recommendation and I do not see why the previous government did not act on it. I have asked the department to work on implementing Ms Parker’s recommendation.

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