The care manager of Newmarch House has told an inquest of the "traumatic situation" she was confronted with in the early days of a COVID-19 outbreak at the aged care home as staff tried desperately to meet the basic needs of residents.
A 65-day outbreak at the Western Sydney facility in April and June 2020 resulted in 19 deaths, with 37 of the facility's 97 residents contracting the virus.
Melinda Burns, who had been at Newmarch House since it opened in 2011, gave evidence that while she'd had previous experience with influenza and gastro outbreaks in an aged care setting, COVID-19 represented new territory.
In the first days of the outbreak there was "intense pressure on very few people", she said, and while there had been plans created in case of an outbreak, the scale was beyond what was anticipated.
"It was a traumatic situation," Ms Burns told the court.
"You had really no idea what was going to happen next. You didn't know if you were going to have any staff at all, staff would appear and then say they didn't know that there was COVID in the facility and they would leave and go home."
Ms Burns said that some workers refused to look after residents who had tested positive and at one point during a meeting, there were no staff to serve meals.
"You were just trying desperately just to make sure the basic needs of the people you really wanted to provide care for were there and you wanted to be able to communicate some sort of reassurance to the families, but it was extremely hard to do."
Ms Burns told the inquest that the furloughing of staff was a constant challenge due to the changing definition of a close contact and some external replacements were "so unskilled they were of no benefit".
"It's not the numbers but the quality of people you have caring for the residents," she said.
But Ms Burns said that didn't detract from the "amazing care" most provided.
"I'm very proud of all the staff of both Newmarch House and the teams that came in.
"They didn't know what they were walking into or what they were taking home."
Ms Burns said a contingent of staff from BaptistCare, with experience from an earlier outbreak at Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park in Sydney, later provided "great assistance".
She was asked about a statement from one of those BaptistCare nurses, who reported that Ms Burns seemed "overwhelmed" and did not appear to be receiving the necessary direct crisis management support from owners Anglicare.
"That is true," Ms Burns said.
"Did you feel supported by the senior executives of Anglicare?" Counsel assisting the coroner Simon Buchen SC asked.
"No," the witness replied.
In Ms Burns' own statement, she described the outbreak as the most challenging experience of her career and said the grief felt by the families and residents will stay with her forever.
The inquest, before Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee, continues.
