Vacant nursing home beds as sanctions remain
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The nursing home is not allowed to take new residents. (ABC TV)
Ballarat's Kirralee Nursing Home now has 20 of its 100 beds vacant, just three months after a damning audit revealed that the Victorian facility failed to meet 33 standards for food and health care.
Another audit in August found the facility, in central Victoria, had improved, but Commonwealth sanctions remained in place.
Kirralee management says the sanctions prevent it from taking new residents, so it has not been able to fill the 20 beds as they have become vacant.
The Department of Health and Ageing says the nursing home can take new residents, but the sanctions prevent the Government subsidising those beds.
The federal Labor Member for Ballarat, Catherine King, says it is not ideal to have empty beds.
"My concern is twofold, one is that the aged care that is provided to residents of this district is absolutely meeting all of its standards and that we do ensure that there are not lengthy waiting lists," she said.
"Those two things unfortunately in the case of Kirralee have come to a head."
