It has been a bad year for Bupa.
15 of its 72 Australian aged care homes were sanctioned by the Department of Health in 2019 – meaning Bupa could not admit any new residents into those homes until they were compliant again.
Bupa also appeared at the Royal Commission’s Sydney hearing on residential care in May and again at its hearings on governance in Hobart last November, prompting a spate of headlines about failures at its South Hobart facility.
The company currently has four homes under sanction but has seen its occupancy rate nosedive from 92% to 83% in 2019 (by the end of the year, it was 89%).
Cynthia Payne’s Anchor Excellence has been engaged in rectifying the sanctioned homes.
Bupa Australia and New Zealand’s Chief Financial Officer, Nick Stone, has warned it could take the provider years to recover to levels similar to its 2017 profit results, writing down its Australian aged care business by $320 million “relating to the impairment of goodwill” for the year to 31 December 2019.
Mr Stone said Bupa had also invested “tens of millions [of] dollars” into its aged care division including on stronger clinical oversight, improved staff training, enhanced internal auditing, implementing a new management structure and increasing the quality of food.
In contrast, its New Zealand aged care business has performed in line with expectations, with revenue down 3% to $282 million and profit down 55% to $13 million.
