Inquest to bring closure over aged-care COVID deaths

The decision not to allow the elderly residents of Newmarch House to leave as a deadly wave of COVID-19 swept through the home likely cost lives, one family member believes.

Inquest findings, due to be delivered on Friday, could provide some closure to the families of 19 people who died as a result of the 2020 outbreak.

A main focus of the inquest was the facility's decision to treat sick residents on-site under the Hospital in the Home program, rather than transfer them to nearby hospitals.

It's a decision Nicole Fahey believes cost lives, including that of her grandmother Ann.

"They didn't have the chance to come out," Ms Fahey told AAP.

"That's why so many of them passed away."

Less than two months after Newmarch entered lockdown in late March, 37 residents had contracted the virus.

Ms Fahey said family members like her did not want to see what occurred simply swept under the rug.

"I'm hoping the findings that are handed down are of substance enough for the families to feel like, moving forward, what occurred won't happen again," she said.

At the outset of the inquest, which began in 2022, counsel assisting Simon Buchen SC said one question to be answered was whether residents and their relatives had consented to be part of the Hospital in the Home program.

Mr Buchen also described preparations by the Anglicare-run home before the outbreak as insufficient for what ultimately occurred.

But he also noted that family members mostly approved of the home before the COVID-19 outbreak, describing staff as dedicated, conscientious, caring and kind.

Numerous issues emerged once the virus took hold, including medications being missed, doctors not wearing PPE and failures to deliver meals to residents or ensure oxygen cylinders were full, the inquest was told.

"What had hitherto been a well-run and well-managed home assumed a level of chaos and dysfunctionality," Mr Buchen said.

Despite what she sees as missteps, Ms Fahey said she did not hold individual staff members, many of whom also contracted the virus, personally responsible.

"Some of the rules and regulations that were put in place at the time definitely shouldn't have been put in place," she said.

"(But) the people in there did the best they could with what they knew at the time.

"A lot of the families don't have any angst for the staff, they did the best that they could."

A class action brought against Newmarch by some of the dead residents' relatives reached a confidential settlement in November.