Nursing home fined after 45 residents died during COVID
Updated . First published at
A nursing home where almost half of its residents died after contracting COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic has been convicted and fined over five years after the tragedy.
St Basil's Home for the Aged was sentenced in the Victorian County Court today over one of the deadliest nursing home outbreaks in 2020.
Forty-five residents became infected with the disease and died from virus-related complications within one month.
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Ambulance service workers push a stretcher into the St Basil's homes for the Aged facility in Fawkner on July 27, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Getty
Judge Trevor Wraight convicted St Basil's and fined it $150,000, saying the operator was well aware of the COVID-19 outbreak but failed to enforce all measures required to maintain a safe workplace.
"Here, there were weaknesses in the system, where five staff did not receive training, giving rise to the identified risks," he said.
The home was not charged or sentenced over the residents' deaths, rather for the breach of workplace health and safety responsibilities.
WorkSafe had initially brought nine counts of breaching occupational health and safety legislation but dropped eight after the aged care provider pleaded guilty to one charge.
St Basil's admitted it failed to properly train and supervise five workers on how to properly don and take off personal protective equipment between March 13 and July 12, 2020.
The organisation had engaged external doctors to train staff over five sessions, but five members did not receive training.
There were 92 residents and 106 workers at the home at the time. As well as the 45 resident deaths, 45 employees also contracted COVID-19.
Judge Wraight acknowledged the prolonged criminal process, which has lasted for more than five years, and heavy media scrutiny as mitigating factors in his sentencing decision
He also acknowledged St Basil's has since upgraded its systems and procedures in preparation for future disease outbreaks.
The maximum penalty the aged care home could have received was $1.4 million.
A coroner is separately investigating the St Basil's deaths, but the inquest had been put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case.
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