BUPA CEO apologises for ‘totally unacceptable’ aged care failings

The boss of Australia’s largest private aged care provider has made an unreserved apology for the failings that have been observed across its network of aged care locations and had made a pledge to address all concerns.

In an interview with the ABC, BUPA CEO Hisham El-Ansary said that what he saw in the media about aged care abuses was “totally unacceptable” and that “we are capable of much better and we are working very hard to restore confidence in the services we deliver”.

Analysis of accreditation reports show that over 60% of Bupa home fail basic care standards and 30% are said to be putting the elderly at “serious risk”. In the interview, El-Ansary said that his company only believed that 18 of their care homes were failing basic standards.

He said that BUPA was committed to fixing problems “over the next couple of months” and that in a year’s time all failings would be addressed. Last year, BUPA recovered a half-a-billion-dollar subsidy from the Government which has caused outrage amongst families of aged care abuse victims who allege the Government failed to police the industry before giving it handouts.