A toxic work culture, a discouragement of visitors and a failure to consult family members helped prolong the mistreatment of elderly dementia patients at an Adelaide nursing home, a Senate inquiry has heard.
Senior SA Health official Jackie Hanson admitted the Oakden facility had a culture of cover-ups and under-reporting by some staff.
"That closed environment was a very toxic environment, so people who worked there didn't recognise what they were doing or walked past it," Ms Hanson said.
"The wards were locked and the clinical view by the staff that worked there was it wasn't really a safe place or appropriate for too many visitors to enter because it stimulated the residents to a point where they would get very upset."
Ms Hanson said most residents had not been able to speak up, but if family members had been spoken to when the home was undergoing its external audits abuse might have been stopped.
"If they had been involved in the accreditation process we would have seen a different outcome," she told the committee investigating the quality and assessment of aged care facilities across the country.
Principal community visitor Maurice Corcoran said he flagged numerous incidents of patients with extreme bruising and of others left lying on the floor.
He said he was told of one patient, Bob Spriggs, who was overdosed but did not receive an adequate response to his concerns.
"The family learned that on three separate occasions Mr Spriggs was given 10 times the amount of antipsychotic medication," Mr Corcoran said.
"The indignantly of not giving a response to the details of the complaint to the Spriggs family really bought to my attention great concerns."
The state government closed the Oakden home earlier this year after a scathing review by South Australia's chief psychiatrist uncovered rough handling of patients, an excessive use of restraints and a concerning level of injuries.
The Independent Commissioner Against Corruption has also launched an inquiry to see if maladministration was involved.
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