When COVID-19 hit the Jeta Gardens Aged Care home south of Brisbane in late December, the facility was locked down and residents were confined to their rooms.
The home now has the unenviable title of Queensland's worst facility for COVID-related deaths — almost 100 residents and 80 staff have been infected, while 16 residents have died.
One of those residents was 87-year-old Lottie Meek, who died almost a fortnight ago in hospital with COVID-19.
Her family says her final weeks were marked with fear, sadness and loneliness.
"I would describe Nan as funny, cheeky, a little bit naughty … everyone loved her," her granddaughter Robyn Brown told 7.30.
"In the last few weeks, she was suffering mentally, emotionally, physically. She was not in a good place.
Ms Brown and her mother Karen Chatterton are angry because it has emerged the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission raised concerns last year about the facility's lack of preparedness for a COVID-19 outbreak.
"We put her in there to receive good care, you know. We put her in there for them to look after her needs. Not for this to happen," Ms Brown said.
"I understand that there are going to be outbreaks, but you need to be prepared for these outbreaks."
In a statement, Jeta Gardens said the health and wellbeing of its elders "is always the priority", and that the COVID-19 outbreak is now under control.
"No new cases have occurred since 9 February 2022," the statement said.
"The appointed Nurse Advisor and our Consultant Gerontologist have noted there are no clinical risks with any residents at Jeta Gardens that are out of normal aged care operations or concerns."
Mental health deteriorated
Ms Brown said her grandmother became depressed while confined to her room for about three weeks during the outbreak. At first, she tested negative for COVID-19.
"She would call us very upset. She would be crying on the phone and making comments such as, 'I don't want to live anymore, please get me out of here, I've had enough,'" she said.
"You need sunshine, you need to have fresh air. That is all a part of mental and physical health. And when you deprive someone of that, bad things are going to happen.
"The fact that that was her prison, and that's where she had to stay … I think that's a form of torture."
Lottie Meek's daughter, Karen Chatterton, said staff appeared to be struggling to cope.
With cases rising and Ms Meek's mental health deteriorating, her family decided to take her out of the home last month.
Ms Chatteron said she was told her mother tested positive for COVID-19 the day they moved her. Her mother was not vaccinated.
"My mum was a bit worried about getting vaccinated because of her age and things like that," she told 7.30.
"She had also experienced within the rest home a few of her friends getting vaccinated, and they didn't go so well after being vaccinated, and that was quite a concern for her," Ms Brown added.
The federal health department said that as of February 16, of Jeta Gardens' 150 residents, 129 have had two doses of the vaccine and 98 have received their booster.
A booster clinic visited the facility in late January and early February after the outbreak.
Ms Meek had diabetes, heart and lung issues. She died on February 5.
"Nan did not want to continue with life," Ms Brown told 7.30.
"We as a family feel that if she was in a much better mental and psychological state, if she had been allowed to see us, if she had been eating, if they had maybe tried to get her to do the exercise, sun on her face … I don't know if that's the decision that she would have made at that time."
Jeta Gardens told 7.30 in a statement that all residents "are provided with social, emotional, and physical care and support".
"There have been no complaints or reports from residents regarding mental health concerns or deterioration," the statement said.
The facility also said residents were no longer confined to their rooms and communal spaces were fully functioning now that the lockdown had lifted.
'Providers have ultimate responsibility,' minister says
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck declined 7.30's request for an interview.
Yesterday, Mr Colbeck faced a grilling in Senate Estimates about whether the government should have done more to prevent the 16 deaths at Jeta Gardens, considering the regulator knew there were problems at the home last year.
"The providers have ultimate responsibility in regards to provision of care," he said.
Mr Colbeck told Estimates the home had been "uncooperative" around a number of events, and he had concerns about the facility continuing to operate.
"There are certainly issues with the management of this facility, and we had an exchange earlier about who should and shouldn't be in the industry," Mr Colbeck said.
"I have asked the question whether they should retain their approved provider status."
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson could not confirm to Estimates what communication the regulator had with Jeta Gardens after raising issues last year about the facility's preparedness for an outbreak.
"We would have been in touch with the service … I can't say for certain. It may not even be part of the normal record," she told Estimates.
"It would be typical but not universal for us to be in touch in the intervening period."
The regulator is also responsible for accreditation, which involves inspecting facilities from top to bottom.
But 7.30 has learned 817 homes currently have their audits postponed because of the pandemic.
The commission told 7.30 in a statement it expected the majority of these 817 services would be audited in the next five months.
Information provided by the regulator also shows it has done 654 site visits this financial year compared to 3,452 last financial year.
The regulator says outbreaks, public-health-ordered lockdowns and border restrictions have hampered its operations.
More than 2,000 aged care facilities have now experienced a COVID-19 outbreak.
In a statement, the commission said it "does not visit services during an outbreak because it would distract from the vital public health response that is the top priority for a service in this situation".
Ms Anderson told Estimates that despite COVID-19 interruptions, the commission was keeping a close watch on facilities.
"We cannot undertake a site audit where there has been an exposure or an outbreak," she said.
"The fact that we have had to delay some site audits does not in one way affect our ability to oversee the safety and quality at that site."
In a statement to 7.30, a spokesman for Mr Colbeck said: "Efforts to strengthen the protections for senior Australians in aged care remain a priority for the Australian Government and the work of the strengthened independent Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission remain key to that important reform."
This week, it was reported that two senior managers at Jeta Gardens had been stood down.
Staff were 'stretched to the limit'
Ms Chatterton said even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the home appeared overwhelmed by a lack of staff and a turnover in senior personnel.
"Mum will be saying to me, 'Oh, I wasn't getting showered today,'" Ms Chatterton said.
"There was only one caregiver amongst all the residents for that wing and her medication was late … they were stretched to the limit."
"Nan was complaining that either the food was cold — which was a big thing for her — or things like boiled potatoes, she was like, 'They were so raw,'" Ms Brown added.
Ms Brown and Ms Chatterton told 7.30 their grief had been compounded by the home charging for Ms Meek's care and accommodation when she was actually in hospital, and by the way staff had packed up her belongings.
"They had thrown everything into black rubbish bags, black plastic rubbish bags, and they had dumped them outside in the weather and said, 'Go for it. We've packed her stuff,'" Ms Brown said.
"The day I picked up my mum's furniture, the hard stuff, management was outside. Not once did they come and apologise or say, 'How are you? Sorry,' — nothing," Ms Chatterton added.
After being approached by 7.30, the CEO of Jeta Gardens Wesley Carter reached out to Lottie Meek's family and apologised for any distress caused.
"Lottie was a long-term resident of Jeta Gardens and I apologise that what her family experienced at the time of Lottie's passing was not as it should have been," Mr Carter said in a statement provided to 7.30.
The regulator has served Jeta Gardens with what is known as a notice to agree, which means it has to appoint an adviser, and the facility is also required to train staff in "best practice infection prevention and control".
Ms Brown and Ms Chatterton told 7.30 they felt it was too little too late.
"I guess it's very easy for the rest home and government to go, 'It's just another death,' or 'She wasn't vaccinated so what do you expect?'" Ms Brown said.
The regulator has also launched an inquiry after a woman in her 70s fell from a second-storey balcony at Jeta Gardens earlier this month and suffered leg injuries.
A computer screenshot of a Jeta Gardens incident report, obtained by the ABC, lists "neglect" as a contributing factor.
Jeta Gardens said in a statement that as it was being investigated by the regulator, it could not comment on specific matters relating to outbreak management.
The facility said it was "cooperating and communicating, and will continue to [cooperate and communicate] daily with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission."
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