NSW St Vincent De Paul sells 18 nursing homes to private sector
The NSW St Vincent de Paul Society has cited financial pressure as the reason to sell its 18 aged care centres in NSW to a corporate buyer, raising concerns about the future care of the elderly poor and the adequacy of Federal Government subsidies.
The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) ran this exclusive report on 10 November, prompting the Minister for Ageing, Senator Santoro, to defend new building and safety regulations and noting that St Vincent de Paul “believes poor elderly people in New South Wales will be ‘amply catered for’ after the Society’s withdrawal from aged care, as a result of the safety net provisions put in place by the Howard Government and the strong growth in aged care”.
The Society has run aged care facilities for 40 years, cares for 900 residents, more than half of them poor people with few assets.
The SMH report said that “faced with a $50 million bill to upgrade its properties over the next few years to meet new Federal Government building standards, the Society has decided to quit the aged-care industry and spend the sale proceeds on younger homeless people. It “could not reconcile such a large capital expenditure to service 900 people against the desperate needs of the homeless.”
The Salvation Army’s southern command has previously sold 15 aged-care centres in 2004, to a consortium backed by Macquarie Bank, for $125 million.
However, Catholic Health Australia said its members had been interested in buying the business and they were concerned that decisions had already been taken.
Francis Sullivan, the executive director of Catholic Health, said: “We are very disappointed if these services are to be removed from the charitable sector. The long-term needs of the low-income and homeless elderly are not going to be served by corporate Australia.”
Mr Sullivan said the greying of the population was starting to lure corporations into aged care, once the preserve of churches, charities, and small private operators, and large companies had increased their market share at the expense of the charitable sector.
