BUPA Aged Care Australia is facing a class action over poor-quality care at its residential aged care facilities.
Echo Law filed the lawsuit today, which alleges that Bupa failed to provide the quality of care promised to residents, and that it was required to deliver under law, between 01 Jul 2019-11 Apr 2025.
"Bupa markets itself as a high-quality provider with sufficient, well-trained staff ready to provide a high level of personalised support, but the evidence shows that Bupa's homes regularly and consistently fall below minimum acceptable benchmarks for care," said Dr Lauren Meath, Echo Law Senior Associate.
The class action is seeking to recover damages for breach of contract and for breaches of the guarantees owed to consumers under the Australian Consumer Law.
The litigation follows evidence presented to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety during 2019 and 2020 of "unacceptably high levels of substandard care" in the aged care system, including in facilities owned and operated by Bupa.
A key aspect of this was systemic understaffing at for-profit aged care providers and failures in staffing skillmix, to a level where those providers were not delivering an acceptable standard of care and service.
Despite the findings of the Royal Commission, the subpar practices have since continued at Bupa.
"Bupa's own reporting confirms widespread understaffing and failures to meet the minimum acceptable level of care required under Australian law at each of its aged care facilities," said Dr Meath.
"These are systemic failures at the corporate level and at the expense of residents."
People who resided at Bupa between 01 Jul 2019-11 Apr 2025, and their families, can learn more about the class action and stay updated by clicking here. JM
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 14 Apr 25
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 14 Apr 25
