North Nowra nursing home fails quality test

In November 2016 the the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency assessment team found numerous issues with the nursing home which had placed residents’ health, safety and wellbeing at serious risk.

Among the most concerning of the findings was the lack of working smoke detectors. It was reported four residents routinely smoked in their rooms.

The village also failed to meet NSW Food Authority safety requirements as assessed in November 2016. The food safety system had not been maintained to ensure all meals were safe for residents and the kitchen and kitchen equipment was found to be unhygienic. 

Rose Mumbler Village managers were unable to show the assessment team residents’ medication was safely managed or supplied on time.

The nursing home also failed to ensure all residents were as free as possible from pain. Residents’ pain levels were not regularly monitored. Medications were not evaluated after administration for effectiveness and four residents reported their pain was not properly managed.

The report found no evidence of police checks for all staff, poor laundry hygiene attributed to an inadequate number of clean washing baskets, a lack of clinical care for residents, a lack of staff training and no plan to deal with a disease outbreak. 

There was no designated outbreak coordinator and no allocated responsibility for infection surveillance or for the prevention, minimisation and containment of infection. Staff had not been provided with regular infection control training and hand washing skills were not monitored. 

The condition of the buildings had not been maintained through regular cleaning, painting and maintenance and the team reported the home was visibly dirty. The home will be monitored through unannounced visits.