Several companies chasing nursing homes group over unpaid bills

A number of companies are pursuing Aperee Living, a private company which runs several nursing homes, over unpaid bills they claim they are owed for services provided to care homes.

Aperee, a private company which cares for more than 500 residents across nine nursing homes, has been under serious pressure from the State’s healthcare regulator in recent months.

The company has been the subject of several highly critical reports by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), raising serious concerns over the management of money belonging to residents.

Inspections had found the company was inappropriately using residents’ money to cover the running costs of nursing homes, before topping accounts back up, as well as cases where money had not been returned to deceased residents’ estates.

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Aperee has also been under pressure from suppliers who claim they have not been paid for services provided to nursing homes run by the company.

A pest control company, Rentokil, registered a court judgment late last month, detailing that it was owed more than €12,000 by the nursing home group.

Separately, a company that provides agency staff to nursing homes has taken legal action against Aperee over outstanding invoices it said it has yet to be paid.

The company, which did not wish to be named publicly, claimed it is owed a significant sum from the nursing home group.

A senior executive at the agency staff supplier said the company experienced huge difficulties chasing Aperee for payments, at one point having several months’ worth of bills outstanding.

Around the middle of this year the company stopped providing agency staff to Aperee, and took legal action against the nursing home group in August.

Aperee did not respond to requests for comment on claims from either supplier that they were owed significant amounts of money from the company.

In an inspection report published last month, Hiqa said one of Aperee’s nursing homes in Tralee, Aperee Living Camp, had a “significant” list of creditors, several of whom had refused to provide further services until they were paid.

The nursing home group was set up by Cork-based investments firm BlackBee Group, with its founder, Cork businessman David O’Shea, currently the sole director of Aperee’s holding company.

Last month Hiqa took the significant step of shutting down a nursing home run by Aperee in Ballygunner, Co Waterford, due to serious concerns about the care and welfare of residents, as well as the management of the facility.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) stepped in to manage the facility in the interim while residents were relocated.

It is understood about three-quarters of the 44 residents that had been in the home have been moved, with the remaining residents to transfer to other homes in the next week.

“In consultation with residents and their families, a programme of relocation to other privately run or HSE-operated residential care settings in the Waterford area was undertaken and will be completed shortly,” a HSE spokesman said.

Hiqa has also referred concerns about the inappropriate use of residents’ money by Aperee to the Garda, which is examining the matter to determine whether it should open a criminal inquiry.

The company has previously said all of its policies were up to date and “residents’ finances are fully protected”.