Albert Park special accommodation facility to be investigated after outbreak
A special accommodation facility with more than a dozen positive COVID-19 cases will be investigated after vulnerable clients were seen breaching quarantine and wandering throughout the local community without face masks.
On Saturday, residents of Albert Park's Hambleton House in Melbourne's inner south-east had been seen in nearby streets and entering businesses despite an active outbreak, and had to be returned to the site by police.
There are now more than a dozen COVID-19 cases connected to Hambleton House in Alfred Park. Credit:Paul Jeffers
There was a strong police and security presence at the facility again on Sunday morning after several neighbouring residents claimed to have seen residents moving outside their accommodation without face masks.
Hambleton House, a privately run supported residential service facility which provides care and residence to those with mental health issues or behavioural problems, has seen more than 10 of their residents moved to Melbourne hospitals.
Health Department authorities encountered several issues when they went to test residents at the facility on Thursday, including a lack of client information and limited support plans in place for residents if an outbreak occurred onsite.
The DHHS has now deployed security at the facility.
A government source on Sunday confirmed the supported residential services regulator will investigate the apparent breaches at Hambleton House.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the rest of the facility’s residents would be shifted to Alfred Health, St John’s Hospital in Berwick and St Vincent’s Hospital on Monday.
"These are unique units hospitals have to support people with mental health issues and challenging behaviour," she said on Sunday afternoon at a press conference.
"Some residents are positive and some are negative, but we are concerned about the welfare of those individuals."
She said the residents would likely be in specialised care units for a number of weeks until it was safe for them to return.
Healthcare workers enter Hambleton House in Albert Park on Sunday morning, after an outbreak and reports of quarantine breaches by residents. Credit:Paul Jeffers
Residents have been attending local shops, pharmacies and other public places since the outbreak began, according to the manager and local residents who did not want to be named.
Premier Daniel Andrews said there was a “range of clients and residents there who have particularly complex needs”, but he would not comment on reports that police had been deployed in response to failures by security guards.
Mr Andrews spoke of the complexity of managing outbreaks within special accommodation and said that depending on the circumstances it was sometimes inappropriate to isolate some residents in their rooms.
“That will be appropriate for some people, and I'm very careful about how I might express this, because we are talking about vulnerable people with often very complex needs, that is why that is their home,” he said.
Mr Andrews said moving residents to a mental health facility or non-clinical housing might be appropriate for ensuring COVID-19 doesn’t spread through services like Hambleton House, but “it's as varied as the needs of those clients which are very much varied”.
A Health Separtment spokesperson said they "have been working closely with the proprietor and have increased onsite support with additional staffing and security to manage the transition of all residents."
The Health Department has been assisting supported residential service providers with PPE and infection control planning as well as outbreak management as part of Operation Benessere, which included management of outbreaks at public housing towers.
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With Paul Sakkal