South Australian ICAC
The South Australian ICAC has made findings against a number of state officials. However, the fact remains that audits by the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency (AACQA) did not pick up the horrendous failings at Oakden.
While the federal Minister for Aged Care commissioned his own inquiry, the suggestion seemed to be that Oakden, because it doubled as a state mental health facility, cannot really be compared with the vast majority of nursing homes.
The aged care industry has been relying for years on the ‘rotten apple’ myth to minimise fall-out from cases of significant abuse and neglect in nursing homes.
In the case of Oakden, the South Australian Government was just another aged care provider which failed to care for, and protect elderly Australians.
The federal AACQA should have picked this up, but didn’t.
