Departmental logo
No images

THE HON JUSTINE ELLIOT MP

Former Minister for Ageing

Australian Government Acts on South Australian Nursing Home

Print page  Decrease text size  Increase text size


The Australian Government imposed sanctions on Whyalla Aged Care Pty Ltd, the approved provider of Copperhouse Court Hostel South Australia, on 4 February 2010

PDF printable version of Australian Government Acts on South Australian Nursing Home (PDF 13 KB)

5 February 2010

The Australian Government last night (4 February 2010) imposed sanctions on Whyalla Aged Care Pty Ltd, the approved provider of Copperhouse Court Hostel South Australia.

The independent Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency (the Agency) identified serious risk to the health, safety and well-being of residents during a review audit following an earlier unannounced visit by the Agency.

Copperhouse Court Hostel has 41 residents, 14 who require high level care.

Areas of serious risk identified by the Accreditation Agency include:

  • Residents not being provided with their assessed clinical care requirements;
  • Residents not being adequately supervised; and
  • Residents' nutrition and hydration needs are not being managed appropriately.

In response to the serious concerns, the Department of Health and Ageing has enforced a number of measures to immediately address resident care, including:
  • Revocation of approved provider status unless the approved provider appoints an experienced nurse adviser– approved by the Commonwealth for a period of six months; and
  • Cessation of Commonwealth subsidies for new residents entering the home after 4 February 2010 for a period of six months.
The Agency will visit the home each day while serious risk remains and the Department of Health and Ageing will closely monitor the home to check that action is taken promptly by the provider.

Minister Elliot said: “When aged care providers fail to meet their obligations the Government will act to protect our frail and elderly citizens”.

“This Government is committed to continuing to work in partnership with older Australians, their families, staff, unions and providers to improve the quality of aged care in Australia.”

Anyone with concerns about the care or welfare of residents should immediately contact the Aged Care Complaints Investigation Scheme on 1800 550 552.

Media contact: Kathryn Conroy (02) 6277 7280 or 0448 249 447

Help with accessing large documents

When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:

  1. Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
  2. Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
  3. Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file

Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking) may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is opening and/or lead to system problems.

Help with accessing PDF documents

To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.