Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro. Can the minister confirm that in August an agency assessment team found that the Elizabeth House Private Nursing Home failed 30 of the 44 care standards, including medication management, clinical care and infection control? Didn’t the assessment team recommend that the nursing home have its accreditation revoked? Can the minister confirm that despite this recommendation the facility’s accreditation was not revoked and no sanctions were imposed? What explanation can the minister give to families and residents for the decision to ignore the assessment team’s recommendation and not even impose a sanction on a nursing home that clearly was failing to provide proper care?

Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can provide Senator McLucas and the Senate with a very specific response to an issue that she has foreshadowed an interest in previously. I can advise the Senate that the Department of Health and Ageing has taken compliance action in relation to Elizabeth House Private Nursing Home in Victoria. The department has issued a notice of noncompliance, giving the approved provider until 22 December to rectify its compliance issues. This is the first step towards the imposition of sanctions, which may be imposed if the deadline is not met.

Elizabeth House was found to be non-compliant with 30 of the 44 accreditation outcomes when an Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency assessment team conducted a review audit in August 2006. The assessment team recommended to the agency that the home’s accreditation should be revoked. However, the agency decided against revoking the home’s accreditation in light of the immediate action that the home undertook to address the deficiencies. Since the review audit, the home has increased staffing levels, improved monitoring of staffing practices and conducted a review and reassessment of all residents’ needs.

The agency is satisfied that this action has immediately improved the care of residents at the home and has demonstrated the home’s ability to address the issues of noncompliance. The agency has, however, reduced the home’s period of accreditation, which is now due to expire on 1 June 2007. The agency has also placed the home on a timetable for improvement. It is obvious from the answer to this question and the answers to other questions that I have provided to Senator McLucas and others in this place that the Australian government has in place a comprehensive regulatory framework to ensure that any instances of poor care are quickly dealt with. This includes the commissioner for complaints, the accreditation agency and the Department of Health and Ageing.

All honourable senators in this place would be aware that we would never have become aware of the situation in those days 10 years ago before the Howard government introduced the quality and compliance procedures which residents and providers clearly benefit from. The agency and the department will continue to closely monitor the homes operated by Glenn-Craig Villages Pty Ltd, which oversees the nursing home in question. Contrary to what Senator McLucas has said, the nursing home in question has been dealt with in a very comprehensive and sensitive manner, with always the one dictum that guides us in terms of providing to our aged and our frail: that the care and the safety of all residents in aged-care homes remains the highest priority of the Howard government.

Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. How can the minister expect the community to have confidence in a government system when it does not impose any penalty on a facility after finding that it failed 30 of the 44 care standards, including that residents were not getting the clinical care they needed, medication was not managed safely, the pain of residents was not managed effectively, families were intimidated when they complained and there was a shortage of staff? Just how bad does a nursing home have to be before it gets sanctioned?

Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McLucas is simply the epitome of an outrage when she comes into this place and maliciously and insensitively seeks to disparage the industry. I suggest to Senator McLucas that she reads the Hansard again. I am not going to waste the time of the Senate. In case Senator McLucas wishes to ask me another question, she can avail herself of the time that I am providing and read the Hansard, because I have outlined precisely what the accreditation agency has done in response to the inspection. I again urge Senator McLucas, as I have done in this place very often, to adopt a non-scaremongering and constructive attitude to the welfare and the mental wellbeing of our residents. If there is anybody in politics who can be accused of abusing elderly people in our aged-care facilities, it is Senator McLucas, who constantly comes into this place and seeks to scare them out of their— (Time expired)

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order. I have been loath to intervene when Senator Santoro has been abusing Senator McLucas over the last few weeks instead of answering the questions, but accusing Senator McLucas of abuse of elderly patients when she asks a serious question—

Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is psychological abuse. You should sack her.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do not try and intimidate me while I am making a point of order, you bully. He ought to be called to order for that kind of hectoring of a senator. He accused her of abusing elderly people. Mr President, I thought that you would have called him to order. I ask you to make sure that he withdraws those remarks. I also ask you to pay attention to the way that Senator Santoro is abusing the process of question time and to the way that he continually attacks those asking the question rather than addresses the issues.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So far as your point of order is concerned, I do not believe that the language that Senator Santoro used was unparliamentary. But I do not think that it is right to be imputing improper motives to another senator. So I would ask you, Senator Santoro—

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He accused her of abusing the elderly.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Evans, are you questioning what I am trying to do here? Are you going to continually interject, like you have all day?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I was trying to alert you to, Mr President, was that he accused Senator McLucas of being an abuser of elderly people. That is not an imputation; that is a direct accusation, and it ought to be withdrawn as unparliamentary.

Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, as you know, I do not often rise on these matters, but I took offence and I do not commonly. You might not have heard the exact way that it was expressed. I wonder if you could look at the Hansard record after this and make your ruling following that.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will certainly be looking at the Hansard, but before I was interrupted I was going to ask Senator Santoro to withdraw those remarks because I believe that they imputed an improper motive to Senator McLucas. That is where I was at before I was interrupted. Senator Santoro, would you withdraw those particular remarks.

Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, if you interpreted my remarks that way, I unreservedly withdraw them.