‘Soul-destroying’: Class action lawsuit launched against Bupa Aged Care Australia

A class action lawsuit has been filed naming a major aged care provider, alleging a poor quality of care for residents that one person labelled “soul-destroying”.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Bupa Aged Care Australia, alleging “poor-quality care” in its aged care facilities across an almost-six-year period.

Echo Law filed the lawsuit against the major healthcare provider, alleging it failed to provide the quality of care promised to residents and that it was required to deliver under law.

The lawsuit spans from July 1, 2019 to April 1, 2025.

The class action alleges that by failing to provide staffing levels that would meet minimum acceptable standards, Bupa has breached the contractual obligations it owes to residents and contravened consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law.

A class-action lawsuit has been launched for a major aged care provider for its alleged “poor-quality care” of its residents. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“Going into aged care is rarely an easy decision for individuals and their families,” Echo Law senior associate Lauren Meath said.

“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.”

The legal firm alleges the healthcare provider was one of the aged care centres found to have “unacceptably high levels of substandard care” in the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety between 2019 and 2020.

“Aged care residents and their families should be able to trust that they will receive safe and high‑quality care when entering aged care,” Dr Meath said.

“The experience should match what is promised and marketed by Bupa, and what is expected by the Australian community and at law.

“Sadly at Bupa that has not been the case.”

The aged care provider’s services allegedly ‘consistently fall below minimum acceptable benchmarks for care’. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

One of the findings in the Royal Commission found for-profit aged care centres had systemic understaffing across their facilities and failures in staffing skill-mix, meaning patients were not receiving an “acceptable standard of care and service”.

While the Royal Commission found the following key aspects, the legal firm alleges Bupa failed to change its practices.

“We know that staff on the floor are doing their best to provide safe and high-quality care,” Dr Meath said.

“But individual nurses, care workers and support staff can only do so much.

“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.

“These are systemic failures at the corporate level and at the expense of residents.”

The class action alleged that by failing to provide adequate staffing levels, Bupa Aged Care had “breached the contractual obligations it owes to residents under its Resident Agreements” and “contravened consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law by failing to provide services that are fit for purpose and delivered with due care and skill”.

The legal firm alleges the aged care provider failed to provide adequate staffing numbers and training. Picture: NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

The class action, which as been filed to the Federal Court of Australia, aims to recover damages for breach of contract and for breaches of the guarantees owed to consumers under Australian Consumer Law.

Dr Meath said the aged care residents deserve the same rights as any other member of the community, however those rights were “all too often ignored”.

“This class action seeks to enforce those rights and ensure that there are consequences for Bupa’s failings,” she said.

One of the members in the class action - whose father resided in a Bupa facility in 2022 - claims she witnessed “horrifying” scenes, including a “serious gap” in staffing and training that left her father in distress.

“Dad lived a life of dignity and service. He had an active social life, loved the rugby, and loved his family,” she said.

She claimed it was “every child’s worst nightmare” to see their parent “treated so poorly at a vulnerable time in their life”.

“Our family trusted that Bupa would deliver what they promised and are required under law to provide,” she said.

“Our experience was soul-destroying.

“I hope this class action serves to ensure no other resident has to experience the poor care my dad endured.”

Bupa told NewsWire it had ‘invested’ into its ‘leadership teams and mdel of care’. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

In a statement to NewsWire, a Bupa spokesperson said they had received the claim from Echo Law on Monday morning and were “taking some time to review the claim”.

“Since 2019, we have invested in our people, our leadership teams and our model of care, and our quality and compliance outcomes reflect this,” the spokesperson said.

“As this is now a legal matter, it isn’t appropriate to provide further comment at this time.”