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Federal Minister for Aged Care Richard Colbeck said the federal government was first notified by Victoria's public health unit of a case at the home on July 14 and organised testing the next day.
Mr Kontis said that he notified the Department of Health and Human Services of the positive case by telephone on July 9,the same day it was confirmed by his staff member.
A DHHS spokesperson says the department advised St Basil's within 24 hours of learning of the case on how best to contain the outbreak.
"While testing is a key to identifying additional cases,testing itself is not an outbreak control strategy,"the DHHS spokesperson said.
Mr Kontis said he was frustrated at the delays in testing and the return of test results and that he was"horrified"when he learnt that more than 200 tests were picked up by taxi at 11pm,six hours after Melbourne Pathology testers left the home.
A photograph taken on the night shows two St Basil's staff,in protective gear,holding a black garbage bag marked:"Urgent. Mass Nursing Home COVID collection. Process immediately and hand to Molecular staff."
Melbourne Pathology Medical Director Ellen Maxwell said the specimens were contained in sealed tubes and biohazard bags inside the plastic bag and that 95 per cent of the samples were analysed within a day and a half.
Dr Maxwell said the samples were transported by a taxi after a courier failed to collect them.
"There is no considered risk to patients,staff or public in the way these specimens were stored until and including in transport,"she said.
A second round of testing was conducted on July 19.
Mr Kontis raised his concerns with DHHS executive director Jackie Kearney on July 20 about the delay in testing and how the test swabs were handled and transported to the lab.
In the letter,he wrote it took"numerous follow up calls and emails over a period of six days before DHHS appointed testers"and that a bag with more than 220 specimens was entrusted to a taxi driver."God only knows when they arrived at the lab and got processed!"he wrote.
He said that some staff and residents were still waiting for test results."This level of delay ... is completely unacceptable and shows that DHHS is incapable of managing this situation with the level of priority that it requires."
At the time of the letter,a dispute had flared between Mr Kontis,his senior management and DHHS over its intention to remove all St Basil's staff and management and replace them with a agency staff contracted by the federal government. Mr Kontisrefused to stand down his staff until Professor Sutton issued a legal directive to do so.
In a separate letter to Professor Sutton,Mr Kontiswarned that the care of residents would be compromised and raised the risk of replacement staff also becoming infected.
The handover at short notice from St Basil's staff to an undersized replacement resulted in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison described as"distressing"reports of neglect.
Professor Sutton said he had no regrets about the intervention.
"Without that intervention,with additional staff who were going to become positive over coming days,as they were,that is just more and more residents exposed and infected and dying,"he said."So I have absolutely no regrets about writing to St Basil's to say that they needed to change that workforce."
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson this week said the commission had"developed concerns about the serious impact of the outbreak on the residents and staff,and the response of the approved provider"at St Basil's.
Mr Kontis serves in an unpaid capacity at St Basil's and,until this week,had declined all media requests to comment about the outbreak.
He said this changed when he heard Premier Daniel Andrews declare in response to the aged care crisis that hewouldn't put his mother in one of these homes.
"What is he saying to me? Is he saying that everyone who works in the industry is covering up for grubby operators? It was below the belt. At that point I decided the story needs to be told."
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