Agree this is absolutely cultural. Otherwise, it would not have been concealed.
It's also not an isolated incident.
The only way this will change is if inspections are carried out "undercover" to expose how they operate when they don't know they're being checked.
Abusive people want to get away with it, of course they won't commit abuse in front of inspectors.
This same kind of horror happens in mental health units. And again nobody listens because we as a society do not listen to people with mental illness. We dismiss it as a figment of their mental illness and allow their abuse to continue.
It's abhorrent.
There will be nurses, psychiatrists and GPs all regularly interacting with the staff and residents of these homes, and all turning a blind eye.
This in particular I find incredibly upsetting, because it's true. Those professionals are supposed to be alert to warning signs of this kind of abuse and step in to raise concerns. Far too often they just don't because they don't want to believe their peers would abuse.
So they allow it to continue.
Every single HCP who has turned a blind eye to warning signs of institutional abuse is complicit in that abuse. Every last one of them.