Quirindi aged care centre slammed in audit, with Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission ruling Eloura non-compliant on all eight standards

Centre CEO Jye Segboer said the centre has worked hard on improving its standards, in advance of a second audit in October.

"[We were] absolutely disappointed. These things are in place for a purpose and for a reason. It's given us a direction and clarity around some of those new standards that we needed. We've managed to move very quickly to cover those gaps," he said.

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The report by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission found that the centre was non-compliant in every major category, but passed 20 of 42 sub-categories.

The centre was "consistently untidy, unclean and the personal dignity of consumers was not always maintained for consumers", the report said.

The report also criticised the centre's "inadequate" oral care regime, said staff "do not understand dementia and how to manage dementia related behaviours" and criticised the state of the centre's special needs unit.

It also reported problems with staff shortages.

"Some consumers/representatives said ... when they call for assistance the staff can take a long time to arrive," the report said.

"Staff said they do not feel there was enough time or staff to meet the needs and preferences of consumers. Consumer calls for assistance via the call bell system have not always been responded to in a timely manner, and the special needs unit has been left unsupervised for long periods of time."

It conceded that the centre had "undertaken immediate actions during and following the site audit to address matters raised by the Assessment Team".

Mr Segboer said all audits were about identifying ways to improve.

He said staff would be given a more modern elevator to help speed up response times to the call bell system - but staff shortages can't be resolved without additional Commonwealth government funding.

The centre was initially given until the end of 2022 for a follow-up audit, but had been improving so quickly it has been moved to October 2021.

"We hope that we've closed the gaps on all of those areas that have been previously identified," Mr Segboer said.

"We hope that we certainly receive the green light for a standard three year accreditation. In saying that ... you never know what might happen on the day. We're taking every action we possibly can to ensure that we're not found wanting in terms of any of those quality standards moving forward."

The commission conducted its audit in April, with a report released in June. Eloura had not been previously audited since 2016.

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