"My friend who was homeless in the hospital"

My friend was sent to Wantirna Health (after a year at another hospital and previously had various stints at Eastern Health) by the head Geriatrician at the other hospital in an effort to allow them more opportunity to access the community and have greater freedom of choice, including who was able to visit them, while they awaited suitable SDA housing.

I feel this was the worst thing that had happened to my friend in the last 3 years (except for their 2 strokes following vaccination, with the last stroke being treated like a figment of their imagination, despite their now permanent incapacity down one whole side of her body). This now permanent incapacity has left my friend without the ability to get in or out of their bed or chair, and they are also unable to toilet or shower themselves. My friend is now utterly dependent on assistance for everything, even rolling over.

Since being in Wantirna I feel my friend is a virtual prisoner. We have found it almost impossible to obtain regular showers or 'chair time' for them (out of their bed) leading to severe depression to where my friend doesn't even ask now to be put in their chair. Whenever my friend gains approval to leave the building for community access and improved choices, it seems to me they are penalized with 3 days isolation even though my friend tests negative repeatedly on applied RAT / PCR tests because they are deemed a risk to other patients. We were even told that during their imposed isolations my friend was not even allowed to access the onsite patient gardens because their chair could be infected with COVID and spread it to patients from the hallway as they passed! I believe even prisoners are allowed one hour in the yard per day.

During their isolation my friend is not allowed access to any visitors or family. They have ceased requesting community access because they fear the isolation more than they desires to connect with other human beings aside from the staff that care for them in a paid capacity. I feel my friend has been persuaded to settle instead for NDIS workers to come in for 2-3 hours 4-5 days per week. My friend rarely sees the sun or gets to enjoy a cup of tea outside their room. I myself was called in on an emergency suicide prevention because my friend became distraught and the Patient Care team believed it was imperative that they see someone they were close to immediately. While there I felt I was verbally abused in the extreme by a senior nurse because my friend’s not allowed to have people here! My friend's in isolation and nobody's allowed to be there! When I pointed out that there were no isolation mandates for people testing negative and the nurse had the freedom to come and go, I was soundly corrected that the nurse’s personal freedoms were not my business. I pointed out that because the patient lives in a room by themselves and cannot leave it unassisted they posed no threat to anyone there. That however, staff, who have complete freedom went from patient to patient without any requirement to isolate every time they connected with the community. And yet, transmission from patient to patient could only occur through staff contact from one patient to another as they all have their own rooms, and the only people with regular contact to the outside world, and therefore the threat, I believe were staff. Not patients.

Under the charter of health care rights the patient has the right to respect and dignity. To be involved in decisions and choices affecting their health. and the right to comment on any health care procedures. Including the right to see "policies" that directly affect the limitation of their human right to human contact with friends and family. To date, despite copious claims that these cruel behaviors are policy, no law backed policy has as yet been produced and improvements have been sporadic and temporary at best.

Additional to all the above, my friend has frequently been denied even a weekly shower. And more recently we have been told that they have to ‘order’ extra staff to enable my friend to be showered but no such schedule has as yet been enacted though we are now many months down the track. There is an appropriate bed hoist in the room which requires 2 people to utilize it, per another hospital’s advice, but at Wantirna health the claim is it requires 4 people and so this regularly doesn't occur. This is a health risk, not just because of resulting poor hygiene, but also because the patient is regularly left to languish in their bed without being moved.

There's so much more I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture. I feel its deplorable and must be redressed.