Officials warned of ‘very high risk’ Aperee nursing home group would collapse

Department of Health officials privately warned there was a “very high risk” that the Aperee Living nursing home group would collapse, resulting in major upheaval for hundreds of residents living in its care homes, internal briefings from earlier this year show.

Three of the 10 nursing homes run by the private company have in recent months been ordered to close by the State’s healthcare watchdog due to issues related to residents’ safety and governance shortcomings.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) raised concerns about the misuse of residents’ money, failures to address well flagged fire safety issues, and the overall fitness of Aperee to run care homes. There are around 350 people living in the seven nursing homes Aperee continues to run across the State.

Aperee Living was founded by David O’Shea’s Cork-based investment firm the BlackBee Group, with Mr O’Shea the sole director of Aperee Holdings Ltd until recently.

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An internal September 5th briefing for Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly raised concerns that Aperee Living was on the verge of collapse. The briefings noted liquidators had been appointed earlier this year to wind down BlackBee Investment, a separate fund set up by the BlackBee group and led by Mr O’Shea. Officials advised the Minister that there was a “very high risk that the Aperee Group will cease trading”, notes show.

A September 11th briefing note said that if Aperee folded there would be an “immediate need” for measures to ensure the short-term safety of residents in its homes. Department officials said one option could be another nursing home provider taking over the facilities. It would be “extremely rare” for the Health Service Executive (HSE) to buy private nursing homes, the document stated.

Aperee did not respond to questions on the concerns outlined by department officials.

Hiqa moved to shut down Aperee’s care home in Ballygunner, Co Waterford, in September, before making orders to shut its home in Belgooly, Co Cork, in October, and Aperee Living in Callan, Co Kilkenny, in early November.

Susan Cliffe, Hiqa’s deputy chief inspector of nursing homes, told Aperee it should decide which of its remaining nursing homes were “viable and sustainable” during a September 12th meeting. The company needed to “stop focusing on plans which do not materialise”.

At an October 12th meeting Ms Cliffe said the regulator had information that gave rise to “escalating financial concerns”. The meeting heard Aperee companies set up to run individual nursing homes were “not being paid” while at the same time there were requests “for funds to be diverted back” to its head office. Ms Cliffe said several of its care homes appeared to be in a “precarious financial position”.

By the end of the month concerns the regulator had about the group’s Kilkenny home had “significantly increased”, according to minutes of an October 27th meeting. An order from Hiqa to cancel Aperee’s registration to run the Callan facility was coming into effect in a week’s time, but the group was “refusing to engage” with the regulator. Ms Cliffe said it appeared “nobody” was preparing for the imminent closure of the care home. She said there had been “no engagement” with the HSE, who later had to take over the nursing home until residents could be moved elsewhere.

The department briefings and minutes of Hiqa meetings were released to The Irish Times following Freedom of Information requests.

Late last month Aperee was bought by a consortium of Irish investors led by Paul Kingston, a previous chief executive of the nursing home group, who left after a dispute with Mr O’Shea last year. Company records show Mr O’Shea resigned as a director of Aperee Holdings Ltd following the takeover.

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