Dr Ian Norton was called to give evidence to the St Basil’s inquest as an expert witness, but government lawyers stopped him from testifying. | By Chip Le Grand Melbchief covid19
A hidden report by emergency management expert Dr Ian Norton challenges the public narrative that poor infection protocols led to the deadly COVID outbreak at St Basil’s nursing home in 2020.
Government lawyers successfully excluded Norton’s evidence at the coronial inquest into the St Basil’s deaths.Inadequate planning and poor decisions by both levels of government created a “chaotic, dangerous situation” at St Basil’s nursing home, according to a review of the aged care coronavirus crisis which the federal and Victorian governments sought to conceal from the public.
Dr Ian Norton was commissioned by Victorian Coroner John Cain to prepare a report on the St Basil’s outbreak. Norton was not overtly critical of Sutton in his report but, in a private conference with the coroner and counsel assisting, he lamented the dogmatic “black and white approach to public health rules” taken in response to the St Basil’s outbreak.His report was prepared at the request of Victorian Coroner John Cain, who is leading an inquest into the deaths of 50 residents at St Basil’s during the state’s second COVID wave in 2020.
Norton has for the past decade been a prominent global figure in emergency management response. He has directed Australia’s national medical assistance team, the World Health Organisation’s global emergency medical team, and, early in the pandemic, was brought in by the Commonwealth to advise on conditions on the COVID-stricken Ruby Princess cruise ship. He joined the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre after the St Basil’s crisis had abated.
By contrast, Norton found that St Basil’s preparedness was “comparable to other residential aged care facilities in Victoria at that time”.