Many residents at an Albion Park nursing home do not feel safe due to the “intrusive and aggressive” behaviour of other residents, while others suspect staff of stealing their personal items. These are just two of the damning findings contained in a federal government agency report into Ridgeview Aged Care which was released this week. The home met just eight of the expected 44 national standards of care after an audit by the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency (AACQA) in June. The home’s accreditation as a provider of aged care services will be revoked in seven weeks unless it meets all standards. According to the AACQA report, several areas of health and personal care were lacking at the home. Medication was “not managed safely or correctly” with staff administering prescribed medications without the supervision of a registered nurse. Pain management was also not sufficient, with residents “not as free as possible from pain” and the effectiveness of analgesia not adequately monitored. Alarmingly the report found that “care recipients do not receive adequate nourishment or hydration” and that unexpected weight loss of some residents had not been managed.
