THE state government is seeking urgent advice after Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass recommended financial compensation be paid to surviving residents of Mentone Gardens by the end of June.
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The supported residential service went into liquidation in 2013 owing more than $4.5 million to 39 residents, many of them over 90 and including three centenarians.
The ombudsman’s report said the Health Department’s files had exposed a “litany of failings” in its oversight of the facility.
The operating company had not produced proper financial records for its entire 25-year history and had been the subject of numerous complaints and two departmental prosecutions for breach of care provisions in 1995 and 2000.
In June 1995 Mentone Gardens was prosecuted after the proprietor allegedly ordered the removal of a resident’s catheter, leading to incontinence and serious impacts on her wellbeing.
Her incontinence, immobilisation in bed and inadequate staffing resulted in her developing a serious pressure sore, which an employee testified she could fit her fist in.
The facility was found guilty of breaches relating to record-keeping, mobility and hygiene standards.
It was fined $4800 and ordered to pay the department’s $8000 legal costs.
Its three-year registration was renewed the following January with no mention of the legal action.
In 2000 the department again prosecuted Mentone Gardens for care plan and accident record breaches relating to a resident with dementia.
The magistrate said the proprietor’s actions were “appalling” and the facility was fined $1500 and ordered to pay costs of $3000 to the department.
Ms Glass said the facility’s registration had been renewed nine times from 1998, even when the proprietor failed to disclose the 1998 and 2000 convictions in statutory declarations.
“The residents, many of them already frail, lost their dignity, their independence and their peace of mind,” she said.
“For their families, the loss was exacerbated by the bureaucratic stonewalling of departmental representatives as they tried to find answers.
“The department’s failures are so egregious, its administrative actions so unreasonable and unjust, and the impact of those failings on such a vulnerable group so severe that I am recommending that the government make an ex gratia payment, in the interests of justice, to those affected.”
Ms Glass said she advised Minister for Ageing Martin Foley in December of her recommendation that a payment be made by June 30 this year, because of the impact any delay could have on those affected.
She has also sought a strengthening of departmental oversight of supported residential services.
Mr Foley said the government had accepted the recommendations and was seeking advice on how they could be implemented.
