“Since taking over the role of CEO earlier this year, I have made it my number one priority to get the quality of care right in our aged care business for each one of our 6500 residents," he said.

“A number of changes have been made, including hiring a new Managing Director of Aged Care, increasing the number of people that we have focussed on quality care, clinical services and training, as well as auditing of all of our homes in a similar manner to the external regulator.

“Overwhelmingly, the aged care sector delivers a great service for the vast majority of people. Sometimes we don’t always get that right. And where we don’t get it right, I can assure you that we are absolutely committed to addressing those problems as effectively and quickly as we can. People should be confident that in the vast majority of case we deliver a great service to their loved ones.

“We have nine homes that are sanctioned by the regulator and three of those homes have already passed their auditing process and we've got applications to remove sanctions from those. So, I expect in the near term that we'll have six homes under sanction, which is still six too many and it's my expectation and my ambition that we will have all of our homes operating effectively the end of this year.”

WATCH:

For more on our response to recent aged care reports, click here.

Return to Aged Care News

Bupa is committed to ensuring that past mistakes don’t happen again and is currently rolling out a range of major improvements to its aged care business.

One of the first changes was appointing a new Managing Director of Aged Care for Australia, Suzanne Dvorak.

We sat down with Suzanne to hear about her first few months at Bupa and what she has been focusing on to help return all of Bupa’s aged care homes to full compliance.

“We’re also making sure that the right levels of senior management are in place, with new experienced General Managers and Clinical Care Managers joining our team. We’ve rolled out training for those who have been working with us for some time to ensure that we have the best level of clinical care for those living in our nursing homes.

“Additionally, there’s been a range of improvements introduced, including increasing staff numbers and reintroducing self-auditing. There has also been a lot of work around reviewing and improving food and nutrition options for those who live in Bupa’s nursing homes.

“Our team are doing everything possible to care for the residents who choose to call Bupa their home. Every day, those who work in our aged care homes come to work to do a good job. The team prides themselves on doing the best job that they can do.

“I think that we have absolutely acknowledged our faults in this, and we have said sorry to those relatives and to those residents who live with us.”

WATCH:

For more on our response to recent aged care reports, click here.

Return to Aged Care News

But by and large we look after 6500 residents, we have 9000 people who come to work every day wanting to make a difference and who genuinely care about the level of service they provide to all of those residents.

Where we have got things wrong, we are absolutely committed, and I am committed as the new CEO of this company, to ensure that we get it right.”

Listen to the full interview here:

For more on our response to recent aged care reports, click here.

At Bupa, we seek ways to continuously improve the quality of care and standards of living for our residents. Where we haven’t met the expected standards and have let people down, we are deeply sorry. This has been the subject of some recent media coverage. We are making the necessary improvements to put things right.

In the vast majority of our 72 aged care homes across Australia, things are working well and we are meeting the expected standards for our residents.

We are investing millions of dollars into our aged care business. This has included additional staffing, resources and training. We’ve also listened to residents and their families and are acting on their feedback.

We know that fixing some of these issues takes time, but a number of the homes that were previously identified as having problems have now passed external audits, are no longer sanctioned and have been fully re-accredited.

Since joining Bupa in June of this year, I can assure you that we are taking our responsibility very seriously and we are committed to ensuring we support our residents with care and respect every day.

Bupa is proud of the 9,000 people who work hard in our homes to ensure residents’ clinical, lifestyle and wellbeing needs are met.

Our nurses, carers and support staff are committed to caring for those in our care.

We are working to improve the quality of care in each and every home we operate, to help ensure that past mistakes don’t happen again and to restore confidence in all of our homes.

Suzanne Dvorak

Managing Director, Bupa Villages and Aged Care 

For more on our response to recent aged care reports, click here.

Want to stay up to date with the latest new from Bupa? SUBSCRIBE here. 

"This will give residents, their families and the workforce a greater voice in shaping aged care for the better, given the rapid change in the sector and society.

"Alongside the quality of care, the scope of the Royal Commission needs to focus on supporting and growing the aged care workforce, and meeting the funding needs of the sector.

"Such a Commission will help Australia manage the changing health and care needs of an ageing population."