Distraught elderly residents evacuated during the abrupt closure of a Gold Coast retirement village just want to go home.
Eight days after Earle Haven nursing home was declared a disaster, more than 70 residents are still homeless as the federal government probes how it could go so wrong.
Relatives and friends are furious, saying their loved ones, many with dementia, are confused and distressed, unable to cope with the move to crammed and overcrowded wards.
Barbara Healey is a former director of a nursing home and her sister-in-law lived at Earle Haven until the shutdown.
She says Queensland Health should never have decided to move the residents and instead should have sent in staff to limit stress.
"They are useless, absolutely and totally useless," she told reporters.
"This was the worst thing that could happen to a person with dementia and most of those people had dementia."
Her sister-in-law has gone from a room of her own, surrounded by her personal treasures, to sharing a ward with four other women.
"It's been terrible, absolutely dreadful. She doesn't know where she is or what she's doing ... she is distressed, they all are," Ms Healey said.
"They are all confused, they have been taken out of their home. They should have stayed here, there was no need for them to be removed."
Ms Healey said the stress of the move only compounded their confusion.
"All they want is to go home."
However, Queensland Health says the facility had been stripped bare of essentials, including medication, food, cleaning products and fridges and staying just wasn't an option.
It had to declare the facility a "disaster" to give it the authority to order an evacuation.
Last Thursday's shutdown was sparked by a financial dispute between the facility's owner People Care and a sub-contractor HelpStreet trusted to operate the high-care wing.
Ian Gibson, whose elderly friend also lived in the facility, says most people want the centre up and running as soon as possible.
"We want him back in here. A lot of the people just want the centre reopened because they have distressed family and they want them back in a safe place."
Federal government MP Angie Bell, whose electorate takes in the facility, said federal government investigators were already looking at what happened.
She said she had no doubt the aged care royal commission would examine the shutdown in detail.
"It is appalling that this has happened," she told reporters. "It must never happen again."
Ms Bell could not say when residents might get to go home.
"The facility is not ready to take residents back," she said.
"If the facility is not able to take them back then it is more dangerous for them to come back than to stay where they are."
Meanwhile, the Queensland government has vowed to name and shame private aged-care homes that refuse to reveal how many nurses are caring for their residents.
The Labor government will pass new laws requiring Queensland's 16 state-owned aged-care homes to provide a minimum standard of nursing care.
That will be set at the current average of 3.65 hours of nursing, per resident, per day - the equivalent of seven patients per nurse across a 24-hour shift.
Australian Associated Press
