Minister orders investigation into state-run home

The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot has ordered a major investigation into a regional Queensland facility where a resident was bitten by swarming mice.

The investigation will be carried out by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency and will examine the nursing home’s response to the mice and the actions that were taken to protect residents.

“We’ve heard a whole series of reports of what happened there,” Mrs Elliot told 4BC radio in Brisbane.

“We’ve also heard potentially of a second mouse-bite as well. There’s also been a whole series of concerns raised about the action that’s been taken by Queensland Health and by the home, as well; and that’s why I ordered the major investigation, so we can actually get all the facts and see what has happened and see perhaps how the home and how Queensland Health should have responded differently…”

The Karringal Nursing Home at Dalby on the Darling Downs is run by Queensland Health.

The state’s health minister has apologised to the victim and his family and a Queensland Health spokeswoman said that pest controllers had been called in to deal with the vermin.

The resident’s daughter told Sky News that she still had complete faith in the facility’s staff who had developed a close relationship with her father in his three year’s there.