Echo Law has today issued Bupa Aged Care Australia with a class action over poor‑quality care at its residential aged care facilities. The class action alleges that between 1 July 2019 and 11 April 2025 Bupa failed to provide the quality of care it promised to residents, and that it was required to deliver under law.
“Going into aged care is rarely an easy decision for individuals and their families. 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,” says Dr Lauren Meath, Echo Law Senior Associate.
“Aged care residents and their families should be able to trust that they will receive safe and high‑quality care when entering aged care. 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.”
Over the course of 2019 and 2020, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety heard evidence of “unacceptably high levels of substandard care” in the aged care system, including in facilities owned and operated by Bupa.
One of the key aspects of unacceptable care revealed by the Royal Commission was systemic understaffing at for-profit aged care providers and failures in staffing skill‑mix, to a level where those providers were not delivering an acceptable standard of care and service. Since then, and despite the findings of the Royal Commission, these practices have continued at Bupa.
“We know that staff on the floor are doing their best to provide safe and high-quality care. But individual nurses, care workers and support staff can only do so much. Bupa’s own reporting confirms wide‑spread 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,” says Dr Meath.
“Aged care residents have the same rights as any other member of the community, however those rights are all too often ignored. This class action seeks to enforce those rights and ensure that there are consequences for Bupa’s failings.”
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 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 class action is seeking to recover damages for breach of contract and for breaches of the guarantees owed to consumers under the Australian Consumer Law.
One of the members of the class is Sarah Laing, participating on behalf of her late father William ‘Roy’ Anderson who resided in a Bupa facility in 2022. During Roy’s residence at Bupa, Sarah was horrified by the level of care provided to her father. Sarah witnessed a range of poor care issues, including serious gaps in staffing and staff training that left Roy in pain and in distress.
“Dad lived a life of dignity and service. He had an active social life, loved the rugby, and loved his family.”
“It is 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. 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.”
Proceedings have been lodged in the Federal Court of Australia.
The litigation is supported by Australian litigation funder CASL.
Residents who resided at Bupa between 1 July 2019 and 11 April 2025, and their families, can learn more about the class action and register their interest in being updated as it proceeds at www.echolaw.com.au/bupa.
For further inquiries and to speak with Lauren Meath and/ or Andrew Paull please contact David Imber, 0413 274 204 or at david@imberadvisory.com.
Key Facts:
A Class Action has been launched against Bupa Aged Care over poor quality care at its residential aged care facilities.
About us:
About Echo Law:
Echo Law is a plaintiff law firm, specialising in class actions against established interests. The firm was founded in 2022 by experienced legal professionals who have a proven track record of success in the industry, and who know what it takes to drive complex, large-scale cases to successful outcomes.
The cases Echo Law partners have led and worked on have been diverse and in many instances broken new ground. In total, those class actions have resulted in more than $850 million in successful resolutions.
Lawyers at Echo Law are committed to using their expertise to fight for the rights of individuals and groups who have been wronged by powerful corporations and institutions.
Contact details:
David Imber, 0413 274 204 or david@imberadvisory.com
