On Good Friday, staff at the former Aperee Living owned Strathmore Lodge nursing home in Callan staged a protest at the facility following an announcement on March 26, from the HSE that it could “no longer safely provide for residents” in the home.
In the video of the protest, both staff members and relatives pointed to the shock of one announcement, with one woman claiming that some of the elderly residents “will not survive” being moved.
Listen to families & staff in Aperee Nursing home in #Callan. "Many will not survive a move" #TransferTrauma #ReverseDecisionNow@BernardGloster@MaryButlerTD @alzheimersocirl@IrishDementiaWGhttps://t.co/TpQkrWOb2b
— Care Champions Ireland (@CareChampions2) March 30, 2024
The decision to close the Callan facility followed a number of inspection reports by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) of Aperee Living homes, including three 2023 reports on Callan – with one report from April 2023 finding a lack of compliance with a range of regulations.
One of the most serious issues highlighted by HIQA was that the resident’s own money had been used to finance the day-to-day running of another home owned by the same company in Tralee.
The daily running of the Callan nursing home, as well as other homes owned by Aperee Living at Belgooly, county Cork and Ballygunner in Waterford, had been taken over by the HSE
Both Belgooly and Ballygunner are now closed. The latest sudden closure has led to speculation as to what might now become of the facility at Callan and at other locations.
Aperee announced last August that it was planning to close the Belgooly home within six months, but that it had no plans for any other closures.
In October, the company announced that it was closing the home before the initial six months were up. The Aperee nursing home at Ballgunner also closed last year.
Belgooly is now listed as owned by the Ditchley Group whose directors are Paul Kingston and Martina Brennan. Ditchley is listed as owned by nominees of Ditchley Group (Nursing Homes), Davycrest Nominees, and Paul Fitzgerald who is also a former Aperee director. Davycrest is part of the Renatus Capital group, among whose owners are former flat racing champion jockey and now trainer Johnny Murtagh.
Independent Ireland TD for Cork South West, Michael Collins, told Gript that the local community in Belgooly are “still in the dark regarding future plans” for the former nursing home, and are waiting to hear what plans the new owners might have for the facility.
In November last, at the time when the HSE intervened, the Kilkenny People reported that Aperee Living has been sold to a “group of Irish investors with a track record in managing and operating nursing homes.” The new “consortium” was reportedly promising to be focused on “driving new standards.”
Aperee Callan is still listed as solely owned by Aperee Kilkenny Holdings which is 49% owned by a liquidated company, BlackBee Investment, and 49% by Apis Capital.
Kingston, who was then CEO, and chief financial officer Hazel O’Connor had stymied a 2021 proposal to sell all of the nursing homes when they claimed that they were entitled to 40% of the company. A case before the High Court was settled in May 2022 but it would seem that the intention to sell off the homes was retained, ending effectively in takeover by Kingston whose plans for the homes are not entirely evident.
David O’Shea, a founder of Aperee who had taken the case against Kingston and O’Connor, before resigning as a director on November 20, 2023, when Kingston took over, is still listed as the sole shareholder of Aperee Holdings. O’Shea had been the main shareholder in BlackBee Investments which went into liquidation in May 2023 and whose financial troubles appear to have been the cause of the issues highlighted by HIQA in relation to the running of Aperee. The order was made to protect some €180 million in client funds.
The closure of the three Aperee nursing homes follows a series of other closures of nursing homes throughout the state. Some of these were bought by investment companies and Gript previously reported on how the former St. Mary’s nursing home in Ballsbridge had been bought by Goldstein Properties and then turned over to accommodation for asylum seekers.
Last October, we also reported on the fact that Minister Roderic O’Gorman had confirmed to Rural Independent TD for Laois/Offaly, Carol Nolan, that 14 former nursing homes were currently in use as accommodation centres and that his department had to that date received a total of 54 applications to convert nursing or former nursing facilities to this use.
Not surprisingly then, there are concerns about what might happen to the former Aperee nursing homes at Belgooly, Callan and Ballygunner and, indeed, whether the new owners of the company might have plans for further closures and, if so, to what use they might be planning to divert them to.
As with the transformation of hotels, guesthouses and other premises from their former use to the highly lucrative asylum accommodation centre, there must be concerns over who exactly is being attracted to buy and to invest in the facilities. It would certainly appear to be the case that investment funds, including major international players, regard the closure of tourist and health facilities and their transformation into accommodation centres as an attractive proposition.
The full details of the consortium put together by Kingston are unclear but a new company of which he is a director, Japama Care, was set up on November 20, 2023 on the same day that Kingston took over the former Aperee Living nursing homes. The other directors of Japama Care are James Doyle and Martina Brennan, both of whom also joined the Aperee boards on November 20, 2023.
The company constitution for Japama Care registered on November 21 last lists three shareholders, each holding 40 of the 120 shares in the company. The three shareholders are Paul Kingston, and Martannellie Holdings and Annjamella Holdings, both of the same address in Lucan.
The owners of Martannellie are Elaine O’Dowd, Martin O’Dowd and Ann O’Dowd who have been involved in other nursing homes and property. The two owners of Annjamella Limited are James Doyle, the former Aperee director, and Anne Marie Doyle.
Meanwhile the staff and families involved in the Callan nursing home await anxiously to hear what the future might hold. They join those similarly affected at Belgooly and Ballygunner and indeed the wider communities who await further information as to what might become of the former nursing homes.
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