A Warrnambool woman has questioned the care her mother is receiving at Lyndoch Living, following a visit she said had reduced her to tears.
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Deb Buckle said she had visited her mother at the Audrey Prider Centre on Saturday night, taking the opportunity to bring her dinner after Lyndoch Living lifted its 10am to 2pm visiting hours policy.
"My husband and I took mum's favourite meals, spaghetti bolognese and a lemon delicious pudding," Mrs Buckle said.
"Got there at five o'clock and started eating with her but then watched as one nurse tried to look after 14 people with high care dementia needs. I sat there and watched this nurse completely overwhelmed, he just ran the whole time."
The legislated mandatory minimum staffing ratios for state-run aged care homes are: one nurse to seven residents, plus a nurse in charge, in the morning, one nurse to eight residents, plus a nurse in charge, in the evening, and one nurse to 15 residents overnight. "There are three wings at Audrey Prider, each with 14 residents, and there was one nurse in each wing, and one floater to cover all three," Mrs Buckle said.
The Standard asked Lyndoch Living about its staffing levels in its highest care section but it did not respond.
Mrs Buckle said people with advanced dementia often needed to be prompted to eat. "We got mum to eat her meal," Mrs Buckle said.
"A lady sitting with us had a round of sandwiches and half a cup of soup and she just sat there looking at it the whole time we were there."
She said another lady was in a wheelchair bent over yelling out asking to be helped to a comfortable chair. "She did that for our whole two-hour visit," she said.
Concerned the nurse was struggling, Mrs Buckle offered to change her mother for bed. "Mum hadn't had her 4pm shower, she had no bra on, no singlet on and no socks on," she said.
Mrs Buckle said her mother was "mortified" her daughter was getting her changed.
"They've all got incontinence pads and I went to get her nighttime one, but her afternoon one was still sitting there," she said. "She hadn't had a shower all day, and from the look of it maybe longer. It was putrid.
"I've been a mother, I know what a nappy looks like when it hasn't been changed. She had not had a continence change since that morning. That means she wasn't taken to the toilet." Mrs Buckle said when she left afterwards she "cried all the way home".
"My mum sold her house. All the money from that was invested in her bond, and she pays most of her pension each fortnight to receive care like that," she said.
Mrs Buckle said she believed the staffing issues pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic having previously moved her mother to Audrey Prider over concerns about the care offered at Lyndoch's Swinton Level 1.
"One evening she had a fall, and then seven more falls throughout the night. We found out later there was no bed mat on the bed to notify staff when she got up. I can understand one fall, or two falls, but seven? And in the morning I thought she'd had a stroke, that's how bad she was."
Mrs Buckle said she didn't want to speak out but after raising ongoing issues with Lyndoch they had not been resolved.