Overview
- Australia’s Federal Court issued the $1.1 million penalty on Monday, the largest recorded for a Tasmanian NDIS provider.
- Oak Tasmania admitted 474 late or missed incident reports from 2019 to 2023, including 370 unauthorised restrictive practices reported up to 313 days late and several serious incidents not lodged within 24 hours.
- The court found the contraventions carried the potential for significant detriment, including death, citing failures such as not administering insulin that led to hospitalisation, a fractured femur after the wrong lifting device was used, and a highly vulnerable client left unattended.
- Penalties comprised $850,000 for direct care breaches and $250,000 for reporting failures, with Oak also ordered to pay about $200,000 in the NDIS Commission’s legal costs.
- NDIS Commissioner Louise Glanville stressed providers’ duty to report serious incidents, while Oak apologised and says it has introduced stronger incident reporting, credentialing and complex healthcare policies following governance changes after a merger within its parent group.