The Anglican Church will sell five nursing homes in Canberra and on the south coast after being advised that it would be financially unviable for Anglicare to continue operating them.
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The sale will include Ginninderra Gardens in Page that was subjected to federal government sanctions last year after inspectors discovered some residents were malnourished and terminally-ill patients were not receiving dignified care.
The other homes to be sold are Brindabella Gardens in Curtin, Bimbimbie in Merimbula, Mariner Park in Tura Beach and Nullica Lodge in Eden.
Anglicare interim chief executive Bishop Stephen Pickard said the homes would be sold as going concerns and Anglicare would continue to operate them until a purchase was completed.
Staff, residents and families were being advised of the sale on Thursday.
A proposal by the Anglicare board to sell the homes was endorsed by the Bishop-in-Council of the Anglican Diocese in Canberra and Goulburn last week.
“Our agenda is to make sure this happens in a way in which the residents are cared for, the staff are properly cared for and reassured," Bishop Pickard said.
Anglicare had been trying unsuccesfully for several years to ensure that the nursing homes could financially break-even.
“Nobody could blame or accuse Anglicare of never having tried to make a go of its aged care portfolio. It’s worked at it tenaciously,’’ Bishop Pickard said.
The five nursing homes were expected to make a $2 million loss next financial year.
Anglicare would remain involved in aged care in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn and would continue to run the St David’s Close Brindabella Court and Wollondilly Gardens retirement villages.
Aged-care facilities on the south coast owned by the Sydney Anglican diocese would not be affected by the decision.
Bishop Pickard said a report by consultants Ernst & Young had found that the nursing home operations were not large enough to achieve the economies of scale needed to be financially sustainable.
“We’re a not-for-profit, small-to-medium provider with 394 beds. The industry benchmark for getting economies of scale in aged care is about 1000,’’ he said.
“For Anglicare to move from 394 to even double its size – 800 – is just too difficult.’’
In January 2012, Ginninderra Gardens was temporarily banned from taking new residents and subjected to daily visits by federal aged-care authorities after inspectors discovered some residents were malnourished and terminally ill patients were not receiving dignified care.
Some residents were subsequently moved to other homes to enable work to begin on a major redevelopment.
Bishop Pickard said Ginninderra Gardens had recently undergone reaccreditation had been found to comply with all government standards.
In 2010, the entire Anglicare board resigned after Stuart Robinson, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, rejected a proposal for the organisation to pull out of aged-care centres.
The sale process of the five homes is expected to take between six and 18 months.
Bishop Pickard said many small-to-medium aged-care providers were facing difficult questions about their futures.
“We’re not by ourselves in this. There are in Australia, aged-care providers at our level having the same kind of conversations and faced with the same kind of realities about how to become financially viable to continue the quality of care.’’
