Neglect at sanctioned Anglican Care Storm Village nursing home raised 'years ago' staff say.

They say they complained about staff to patient ratios, a lack of clinical oversight, a lack of clinical care, and a lack of personal care including wound and pain management in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

In some cases, residents' continence aids would turn black with urine, because by the time they were attended to - as late as 11am when they would be found in wet beds, shivering cold - they had not been seen since 5pm the previous day.

When the issue was brought up with management, staff were told to "work smarter, not harder," said one former member of staff who did not wish to be named.

Those concerns were raised with head office, who would have been obliged to raise it with the board, she said.

Anglican Care has declined to comment or answer any questions on the subject, directed at both the organisation and Anglican Care president Bishop Peter Stuart.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has stopped just short of revoking Anglican Care's licence to run its Taree service, Storm Village, which is home to 81 residents.

During a site audit in January, the commission found nearly 120 nursing and care shifts had not been filled in the four weeks leading up to January 16. An "unexpected death", residents left writhing in pain without receiving prescribed medication - sometimes for day on end, without clinical care, are just some of the issues the commission identified.

Incidents included a resident being punched in the face by another resident, with no evidence of staff using identified behavioural interventions to prevent it.

The home has relied heavily on inexperienced, unqualified staff, an internal report obtained by the Newcastle Herald reveals.

"Care staff are responsible for the majority of assessments, monitoring and delivery of clinical care including medications, pain management, wound management, clinical assessment and monitoring post incidents," the report says.

"You have failed to provide the necessary education and training to care staff ... You have failed to ensure vacation shifts for clinical staff were filled .... Deficiencies in staff numbers and care staff competency presents a serious and immediate risk to consumers in areas of medications, pain management, wound management and clinical assessment.

"There is no evidence available indicating you have taken steps to address these issues."

At the end of the site audit, the aged care watchdog concluded that the non-compliance at Storm Village was "serious and extensive".

"It is not an isolated or quickly rectified incident of non-compliance. This threatens the health, welfare or interests of current care recipients and, by its enduring serious and widespread nature, would threaten the health, welfare and interests of future care recipients."

The Newcastle Herald is told that other issues staff raised with management long before the Commission took an interest in Storm Village last year included resident's beds being infested with vermin, a lack of a full-time manager at Storm Village for up to 12 months, and ineffective internal complaint and risk-management protocols, procedures and oversight.

At times, there were as few as three staff members relied on to feed, bathe, dress, monitor, and medicate more than 60 people, the Herald understands.

That meant that people often went without meals, without medication, and without being attended to at all, a former member of staff said.

"It was a cockroach infested building," she said. "I don't know how many times you'd get a resident up in the morning and you'd have cockroaches climbing out of their bed. Sickening."

The bishop says he was told about critical staff shortages on November 30. Questions put to the bishop, and Anglican Care, as to whether he was made aware of that, and other critical issues at the heart of the "immediate and severe risk" sanction at Storm Village, in the months and years leading up it, were not answered.

The bishop, and the organisation, also did not answer why, or in what circumstances, the bishop, as Chairman of the Newcastle Anglican Corporation Board, which runs and is responsible for Anglican Care, and to which all risks are to be reported, could have remained unaware of those issues, complaints, and concerns.

The current crisis follows on from an ABC Four Corners' aged care report in 2018 which featured the mistreatment of a woman who lived at Anglican Care Storm Village for a few months at the end of 2016.

In a letter of apology to the community in relation to that incident the bishop affirmed his "full commitment to the process of Open Disclosure".

A statement issued on Wednesday said "Anglican Care is putting all efforts into returning the Storm Village facility to compliance and will be making no further comment".

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