Organisations retaliate in aged care battle

THE knives came out in the war over the elderly this week after Montefiore president David Freeman said Wolper and JewishCare had no future unless they became a part of Montefiore.

Communal leaders have been reeling behind closed doors and several have come out publicly slamming Freeman’s comments made in last week’s AJN.

“It is unacceptable that Freeman puts other communal organisations into disrepute simply because they disagree with his one-dimensional view on communal aged-care service delivery,” major communal donor and communal heavyweight Richard Scheinberg said. “If David Freeman is calling for change in the community, he should look closer to home first.”

Scheinberg said most nursing homes in Australia returned a profit, but Montefiore showed an overall deficit of more than $6.7 million in its last annual report.

The criticism continued from the Centre on Ageing’s executive officer, Julia Golding. “We need to understand that we are not dealing with industrial corporations, we are dealing with human being and we need to understand that it isn’t all about the bottom line,” Golding said. “When I read the article, I felt like I wasn’t validated but then I realised that in 30 years we have delivered 840,000 kosher meals on wheels by compassionate volunteers.”

B’nai B’rith Retirement Villages chairman Henry Wirth said Freeman’s comments did not help the community. “I think it was unfortunate venting, but that’s his problem. He’s not unintelligent so I don’t understand why he would suddenly go in that direction.”

Freeman rejected the criticism and said his comments were not meant to be a personal attack on any board members in the community.

“The comments I made really reflected the vision document the Montefiore Home prepared, which was supported by two independent reports,” he said.

“It’s about trying to achieve the best outcome for the community and I believe there are significant cost savings to be made. I believe there can be a win-win for the boards of the organisations and the community.”

He said the reason Montefiore showed an overall deficit was because it was one of the best nursing homes in Australia. “The home is extremely successful and the best aged-care provider in Sydney, and probably Australia.We have an absolutely magnificent facility.

“I have had many critics say that you could reduce costs but 85 per cent of our costs are in wages and if you reduce wages you reduce services and the community does not want that.”

JOSHUA LEVI

Montefiore president David Freeman