Triton and KKR-owned care homes under fire for patient neglect

Reports first emerged regarding its Stockholm-based care home Koppargården. Allegations included a patient dying from mistreatment, insufficient medical supplies, malnourished patients, unnecessary amputations, and a high number of patient falls. Local politicians soon announced plans to terminate agreements with the care home.

Carema responded with a written reply, blaming external medical care provider Trygg Hälsa for "not being serious and professional," and accusing the doctor assigned to the care home of not being on call.

However, the case rose to prominence when Carema's management was reported to have offered a family SEK 75,000 in return for silence after a man died in its care.

The second scandal erupted when staff at a Carema care home in another Stockholm municipality contacted broadsheet DN with information about mistreatment. Reports included broken beds, a pensioner sleeping on the floor for months, lack of soap and toilet paper, and an order from management not to document any shortcomings.

Staff at the care home told the newspaper that they and the pensioners themselves took care of cleaning after cleaners and a janitor were sacked in a reorganisation. Moreover, they claimed, the day before an announced inspection Carema allegedly sent a team to clean and restock supplies.

The Carema head of elderly care denied lack of beds and was quoted saying that "the patient had free choice and wished to sleep on the floor." The municipality eventually decided not to renew the agreement.

Reports later emerged about a "secret bonus system," which allegedly motivated company management to stay within budgets. An anonymous Carema executive told Swedish state-owned television SVT that the departments competed against each other and that bosses who kept their budgets could receive one or more monthly salaries worth of bonuses, but that these were kept quiet. SVT also reported that Carema had systematically switched medically trained staff for less educated, but cheaper, labour.

Carema responded to the reports by freezing all bonuses and has now declared that the bonus system will be discarded altogether. "Our only priority at this moment is to look after patients in our care and restore confidence in our organisation. This means that we are launching an extensive investment programme to develop the quality of our care." stated CEO Carl Gyllfors. Carema has also launched a blog where it denies attempts to silence staff and many of the alleged specific incidents.

The incidents echo concerns over private equity ownership of care homes in the UK, following an abuse scandal at private equity-backed Castlebeck, and the insolvency of Southern Cross, a former Blackstone portfolio company.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Nordics
• Sweden
• KKR
• 3i