But today in The Courier, local doctor Tony Bongiorno speaks out in support of Kirralee and its staff and lays the blame for its current woes squarely at the feet of the bureaucracy.

Dr Bongiorno has had patients at the facility for a period spanning 23 years.

In a letter to The Courier last week, and in an interview published today, Dr Bongiorno argues that an accurate appraisal of patient care cannot be gained in a single visit by an official with no knowledge of residents' medical

histories.

Dr Bongiorno calls for a system which offers "a little more dignity and fair mindedness".

His views were supported yesterday by another doctor, Ed Davis, another medical practitioner of some experience.

Dr Davis likewise argues that meeting the "minutiae of processes" as set by the accreditation system takes nurses away from what should be their primary role of caring for patients.

As The Courier stated at the time this controversy broke out, it is hard to imagine that any person employed in a nursing home would deliberately put patients at risk (but we don't deny that there are instances where that has

happened).

It is not hard to imagine, though, that staff may be under so much pressure to conform to bureaucratic requirements that optimum patient care will inadvertently fall by the wayside.

There has never been an argument put by this newspaper, or anyone that we have spoken to, that the staff at Kirralee haven't had the best interests of their patients at heart.

In all instances, the fingers of blame have pointed to management practices and, now, at the bureaucracy itself.

The points raised by Drs Davis and Bongiorno are valid and ought be seriously considered by those charged with ensuring the best possible outcomes for aged care in Australia.

Unfortunately, public debate on the matter is stifled somewhat by the Department of Health and Aging's refusal to detail specifically what it perceives to have gone wrong at Kirralee.

Instead, we are merely told that it has "failed" to meet a series of standards.

The public, instead, has to rely on people such as Drs Davis and Bongiorno to offer some clarity.