AUSTRALIA
The Australian

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Hedley Thomas
National Chief Correspondent
Brisbane

RESIDENTS at a large aged-care home have been bashed, abused, starved and stripped of pain-relief morphine patches in a culture of neglect and concealment, insiders say.

Relatives and serving and former staff — several of whom were involved in a confidential internal probe — have provided alarming evidence of abuse and neglect at the Baptist-run Kepnock Grove home for the elderly in the ­regional town of Bundaberg, about 400km north of Brisbane.

The Australian has obtained key documents, including confid­ential legal advice, and interviewed insiders about standards of care, injuries and several deaths. They say there has been an attempt­ed cover-up since an initial low-key internal probe uncovered shocking cases at the home and suspicious deaths.

The claims of a cover-up have been rejected by Jon Campbell, the chief executive of Baptist Community Services (known…