Concerns about the treatment of elderly people in aged care homes in Canberra was brought into sharp relief yesterday in reports revealing 77-year-old Peter Tunnecliffe was taken to hospital with a maggot-infested head wound earlier this year.

An investigation was completed and Southern Cross Care, which operates the Garran centre Mr Tunnecliffe lived at, admitted "major failings" in his treatment, but the centre was later audited and found to be compliant with national standards.

But COTA ACT executive director Jenny Mobbs said the council had been learnt of the "awful situation" earlier this year, they only received about one complaint a month from residents or family of residents of aged care centres in Canberra.

Ms Mobbs said the council always urged people to complain directly to the federal commissioner about poor treatment, but that overall she believed the aged care sector in Canberra was performing well compared to some interstate operations.

"We hear from time to time about these sorts of cases, but our first port of call is to refer them to the commissioner, who has the power to actually do something about it," she said.

"Probably our biggest concern is the training aged care sector staff go through - sometimes it can be as little at 12 hours in a week and to me, that's barely adequate."

Ms Mobbs said complicated the lack of training for staff was the fact many staff only spoke English as a second language.

"While we don't think that means they are not able to do the work, it may lead to messages not always being passed on when they need to be.

"I think one of the difficulties we face is that aged care facilities are regulated by the federal government, but retirement villages are run by the territory, so we tend to have less to do with aged care."