Wesley Mission boss denies meeting Aged Care Minister Anika Wells

The CEO of an aged care provider closing three facilities in Sydney has denied meeting Aged Care Minister Anika Wells after she criticised him for not raising the issue during a meeting.

Aged Care Minister Anika Wells. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The chief executive officer of an aged care provider closing three facilities in Sydney has denied meeting Anika Wells after the federal Aged Care Minister criticised the organisation for not foreshadowing the closures during a meeting.

Ms Wells told reporters on Thursday she would have offered government support to Wesley Mission to help the aged care provider meet new staffing regulations if executives had foreshadowed the facility closures during a meeting two weeks ago.

A Wesley Mission NSW spokeswoman on Friday said chief executive officer Reverend Stu Cameron did not meet with Ms Wells two weeks ago and had never met the Aged Care Minister.

Wesley Mission on Thursday announced it would close residential aged care facilities in Sylvania, Carlingford and Narrabeen citing difficulty meeting new national staffing requirements that mandate registered nurses be in aged care homes 24 hours a day.

The closure, slated to take place in May, will affect about 200 residents.

On Thursday, Ms Wells said the looming regulatory change had been recommended about two years ago and she was disappointed the Wesley Mission CEO had not raised the foreclosures with her.

“The first I heard of this was last night when I met with the CEOs from Wesley Mission just two weeks ago and they did not raise this with me,” she said.

“If they had, we could have told them that the government provides a lot of resourcing, information and support to facilities that are struggling to meet the requirements we are asking of them, that the royal commission asked all of us to implement.

“And that we are working with plenty of other facilities who are doing their best to make the 24/7 nursing requirements land by 1 July.”

A spokesman for Ms Wells clarified the Aged Care Minister was actually referencing a meeting with the Queensland chief executive of Wesley Mission two weeks ago when responding to a question about facility closures in NSW.

“Minister Wells met with Wesley Mission Queensland CEO Jude Emmer on March 31 in Adelaide,” he said.

“Jude Emmer was the Wesley Mission representative at the meeting. The Minister has never claimed to have met Reverend Stu Cameron.

“Wesley Mission has today contacted the Department of Health and Aged Care to apologise for their lack of communication regarding their facility closures.”

Nearly seven in 10 aged care facilities are operating at a loss, according to the latest figures from the Quarterly Financial Snapshot of the Aged Care Sector, and there is sector-wide concern facilities will be unable to meet new requirements.