Melbourne aged care home St Basil’s Victoria admits workplace safety breach after deadly Covid outbreak

The aged care home at the centre of a deadly Covid outbreak in July 2020 has admitted it failed to ensure all staff were properly trained. St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Victoria was charged by the workplace watchdog WorkSafe after 45 residents died from Covid-related complications within a month of the outbreak. In the County Court of Victoria on Monday, the Melbourne aged care provider pleaded guilty to one count of failing to provide a safe working environment to staff between March 13 and July 12, 2020. According to the particulars of the charge, St Basil’s failed to provide appropriate training to all staff at the facility on the appropriate use of PPE and mitigation measures after national guidelines for residential aged care were published on March 13. At the start of the outbreak, St Basil’s had 92 residents and 102 staff. The not-for-profit organised five training sessions at the Fawkner facility with external medical providers for some staff between March and June, the court was told. However, five staff members did not attend any of these sessions and not all staff working at the facility understood the appropriate measures, the court was told. The first confirmed case of Covid came on July 9 and, by July 15, dozens of cases were identified when all staff and residents were tested. Addressing the court, barrister Conor O’Bryan, for St Basil’s, said the company had suffered significant public backlash since the deaths but had worked to digitise records and brought on a new training manager. Capacity at the Fawkner homes have since dropped from 150 residents to 77. The facility, the court was told, had been plunged into significant financial distress after the outbreak but continued to operate after the Greek Orthodox Church, which owned the land, waived rent for several years. St Basil’s posted a profit in excess of $1m in the financial year to July 2024 and a net loss of $847,000 in the financial year to July 2025. Judge Trevor Wright indicated that he was planning to impose a financial penalty for the breach when he sentences St Basil’s on March 11. The judge said while the aged care provider had suffered over the past five years, it did not argue it would be unable to pay a fine. The deaths of patients at the facility are the subject of an ongoing coronial inquest.