Jayne Carter said she went “numb” when staff at the Opal Raymond Terrace Gardens aged care facility told her they had found maggots in the mouth of her mother, Shirley, who had dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

“They called and asked me to come into the office, and the facility manager said, ‘We’ve got some terrible news, we’re really embarrassed about this, but we found maggots in your mother’s mouth,’” Ms Carter said.

“I didn’t feel anything. I kind of went numb.

“I went and sat with mum and as I sat there, I looked at how vulnerable she was. She couldn’t move, she was pretty much comatose, she couldn’t roll over and needed help for everything, and I started to get really angry.”

Ms Carter began to question the standard of her mother’s care at the facility in late-2015, when she said staffing levels changed and their shifts were split.

“I did get some unfortunate shots of the inside of her mouth, and there was a considerable amount of green on her teeth and the like – it looked like moss, it was disgusting. An off-duty nurse came in and gave her an oral clean. It was a really thorough swabbing, and nothing like anything I had seen them do before.”

Ms Carter said she had been a “bit freaked out” about the maggots, and had nightmares afterwards.

She was asked not to tell anyone about the incident, as it could get “blown out of proportion.”

Then she remembered her mother, who died at the nursing home in October 2016, had always been an advocate for the vulnerable.

Ms Carter is now demanding an inquiry into the aged care sector, because these kinds of stories were happening “too often to too many people.”

“We need to be responsible and be respectful to those who came before us,” she said.

“There are a lot of really good nursing homes out there, based in the local community. I don’t want to see them penalised. But I do want the organisations putting money before people to be held accountable.

“Mum was 92, she had pneumonia, she was going to die. But that is not the point. The point is that as a palliative patient she was supposed to be cared for and kept comfortable.”

Managing Director of Opal, Gary Barnier, told the ABC that the Raymond Terrace management involved in the case at the time had been dismissed, and that they would support an inquest.

“We did not conduct oral care for a palliating resident every two hours,” he said.

“It was done four-hourly, and that is not our personal standard.”

Mr Barnier said they had identified – through their own investigation – a culture of trying to keep these kinds of matters “hidden,” which was part of the reason for the change in management.

“We can learn from it,” he told the ABC.

“I need to make sure matters are raised more effectively internally.”

The Aged Care Complaints Commissioner investigated the case, with commissioner Rae Lamb telling the ABC she supported calls for more transparency when it came to aged care complaints.

Port Stephens MP Kate Washington said these types of incidents needed to be in the public domain.

“They should be on the public record, and not just through the media,” she said.

“It’s a difficult decision to choose where to place your loved ones, and when there is no information on the public record about prior instances like this, then how on earth can people make an informed choice?”

Ms Washington said the government was trying to remove registered nurses within aged care facilities.

“We have legitimate and deep concerns that reducing quality of care in an aged care setting is not the direction we need to be travelling in,” she said.

“As a broad principle, we say it is paramount to have that quality of care and expertise on site at all times.”