Ballarat aged care residents still in lockdown amid lagging booster rollout

The facility, which is regulated by Ballarat Health Services (BHS), has been in a rolling lockdown since early January when a positive case was first detected among its residents.

It is understood that more than one third of residents at Talbot Place have since tested positive to the virus, along with several of the facility's staff.

Distressed families of residents in Talbot Place - none of whom wished to be identified out of concern for their loved one - have told The Courier some residents were yet to be offered their booster shot, notwithstanding assurances from BHS that an in-reach vaccination clinic would revisit the nursing home in January.

"These are elderly, vulnerable people; they should be priority number one," said one relative, whose parent still hadn't received their booster, despite having been double-vaccinated since June last year.

"No one knows what's going on; we're all being left in the dark."

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In correspondence sent to families of residents on Monday, the facility's nurse unit manager Michele Mizzi said boosters would be made available to eligible residents in February.

"Any resident due to receive their next dose or booster are booked in for the next mobile vaccine clinic in February," Ms Mizzi said.

The correspondence did not, however, specify a date for the vaccination visit, nor explain why the planned January vaccination push had been vacated.

The revelation some residents still hadn't been offered their booster vaccine is inconsistent with statements from BHS dated January 7, 14 and 21 that it was "working closely" with the Grampians Public Health Unit to ensure vaccination would be prioritised in aged care homes.

Two weeks ago, Grampians Health chief medical officer Matthew Hadfield was asked how elderly residents could best be protected against the firestorm of Omicron infections spreading within the community.

"The simple answer is vaccination," Mr Hadfield said. "As soon and as efficiently as possible, everyone [in aged care] needs the booster vaccination."

At the time, Mr Hadfield could not confirm what proportion of residents in BHS's 11 aged care facilities had received their booster vaccination.

A BHS spokesperson subsequently said the "vast majority" of its aged care residents had received their booster dose, adding that "100 per cent of residents who choose to be vaccinated had received two doses". The spokesperson did not define what "vast majority" meant in percentage terms.

Emergency doctor Mark Harris, who also serves as a Ballarat councillor, said the failure of BHS to ensure all eligible aged care residents across its facilities had been offered the booster vaccine was "disappointing in the extreme".

"I hate to be blunt but this is amongst the simplest of vaccination conundrums," Dr Harris said. "You've got a fixed population in a certain place, so it shouldn't be the hardest thing to organise."

"The need for a booster vaccination is absolutely unquestioned for those vulnerable populations; it'd be reprehensible if anyone had stood in the way of that happening as soon as possible."

Citing privacy considerations, a BHS spokesperson on Friday refused to disclose how many of its aged care residents had tested positive to the virus or their vaccination status.

The spokesperson also declined to comment on how many active cases there were among staff and residents at Talbot Place or its other facilities.

"With the knowledge these cases are being managed internally we won't be providing specific numbers on COVID-19 cases in our aged care facilities," the spokesperson said.

"Ballarat is a small community, and the safety and privacy of our residents is paramount."

But the families of residents have called this response "pure buck-passing".

"There aren't any privacy risks in telling us what's going on," one man said, whose mother has been a resident at Talbot Place since last year. "They [BHS] should be transparent instead of worrying about their reputation."

"We need to understand what's going on, who's making the rules - right now we have no idea who's meant to be accountable, where the buck stops, whether it's Ballarat Health [Services] or Talbot Place."

Families were also distressed at apparent inconsistencies in the application of visiting rules between different BHS facilities, with one family told on Tuesday, without forewarning or explanation, that window visits at Talbot Place would no longer be permitted.

BHS is one of 180 public sector residential aged care services in the state funded by the Victorian government to administer aged care facilities.

The Courier has therefore asked the Victorian department of health to confirm the status of any current or recent COVID-19 outbreaks in BHS nursing homes. The department has also been asked why, contrary to statements by the Victorian government, some residents in those facilities were yet to be offered a booster vaccine.

The department is yet to respond to those enquiries.

Meanwhile, there are reports BHS aged care staff have been asked to work across multiple aged care sites, in a bid to plug critical workforce shortages caused by staff furloughs.

Paul Sadler, chief executive of peak aged care body Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA), said this was unsurprising, with more than one third of the aged care workforce in Australia currently furloughed due to COVID-19 exposure.

"The situation across the board is dire," Mr Sadler said. "Up to 30 per cent of staff in many facilities have been off because of Omicron and in some facilities it's as high as 50 per cent."

"I've had aged care CEOs ring me in tears because they're just struggling to get staff numbers sufficient to provide the quality of care they know older people deserve."

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Gerard Hayes, national president of the Health Services Union, said the crisis had compromised the ability of many staff to deliver appropriate care to residents.

"We know some residents can't get showered for days on end while others have missed meals, because the workforce isn't there," Mr Hayes said. "We're seeing the fallout of what letting it rip looks like and means for our most vulnerable."

"This is probably the most concerning part of the pandemic that I have seen and, worse, it was entirely foreseeable."

It comes amid reports around 500 private aged care facilities in Australia were yet to receive a visit from an in-reach booster clinic, notwithstanding repeated assurances by the federal government the rollout to nursing homes would be prioritised and completed by January's end.

Mr Hayes described the failure as indicative of the "general ineptitude and lack of interest" the federal government has shown with respect to aged care residents throughout the pandemic.

As of last Friday, there were 1261 active outbreaks in federal-regulated private aged care facilities nationally, up from 54 just before Christmas, with 296 in Victoria alone.

Despite the unprecedented crisis, the federal government refused an urgent, joint request from ACSA, several private aged care providers and unions for defence force assistance.

Instead, the federal government has announced a one-off $800 pro-rata bonus for aged care workers in a bid to lure and retain workers - a move roundly criticised by Mr Hayes as "too little, too late".

"The crisis is here; it's been here for over two years," Mr Hayes said. "The chronic fatigue from mass furloughing has impacted staff and it's affecting the residents."

Aged care residents comprise more than one third of COVID-19 deaths in Australia this year, with nearly 450 residents perishing from the virus last month alone.

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