Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch Living has been disposed of for zero dollars.

All of Lyndoch Living’s assets – the riverfront land, buildings, apartments, cash – are now being transferred to its new owners the Respect Group and in return, I recently learned, Lyndoch will receive no payment.

Nothing.

After 70 years as a valuable, community owned asset, built on the back of raffles, volunteers and goodwill, Lyndoch Living as we know it no longer exists and we will not receive a single dollar for it.

Instead, in secret, the now-defunct Lyndoch Living board went cap in hand to the not-for-profit Respect Group and struck a deal to hand off the assets, the operations and the debt.

So parlous was Lyndoch’s position, they agreed – without any community consultation – to hand it all over for nothing.

To be super clear, as Respect confirmed to me, this includes the valuable waterfront land off Hopkins Rd, the land along Marfell Rd, the independent living apartments, all the buildings, the original ‘Lyndoch’ homestead, the aged care operations, and any cash invested or on hand.

In other words, the whole box and dice.

The reason for such desperation is that the now-defunct board had completely failed in its duty to manage Lyndoch Living on behalf of the community.

In 2015, before the malignant impact of former CEO Doreen Power, Lyndoch Living was thriving as a $100 million organisation with a waiting list for its 200 beds.

In 2015, it had a healthy $69 million in equity or assets minus liabilities.

By early 2024, at the time of the deal with Respect, its equity had collapsed to just under $15 million. (A figure confirmed yesterday by the Respect Group).

In less than 10 years, Lyndoch’s equity has plummeted and its liabilities have skyrocketed from $27 million to $74 million.

The deficient board drove Lyndoch Living to its knees, to the point where – we now learn – it had no saleable value.

Zero-dollar transfers usually happen when an aged care home needs saving, or the operators are leaving aged care.

Don’t forget even the dated May Noonan Hostel in Terang was sold to Lyndoch for more than $1 million in 2018.

Put simply, every significant financial decision by the board since 2015 has ended in disaster.

May Noonan Hostel has been emptied out and sold, the $22 million medical building was sold for a huge loss, the GP clinic for which it paid $1.3 million is a mere husk operating out of a broom cupboard, and now Lyndoch itself has been stripped from the people of Warrnambool and given away.

Don’t believe for a moment that the demise of Lyndoch was inevitable because of the changing demands of aged care.

In the same period as the former board was driving Lyndoch over a cliff, the Respect Group – a small not-for-profit from regional Tasmania – expanded from a handful of small aged care homes, to 26 across Tasmania, Victoria and NSW.

A not-for-profit that started in Ulverstone – population 11,000 – has swallowed up Lyndoch Living.

That’s what can happen with capable leadership and sticking to your core business.

By law, as a community owned aged care home, whatever funds Lyndoch made from any sale/transfer/merger should have gone back into the community.

I expected that to be at least several million dollars.

Such are Lyndoch’s financial burdens, however, there is nothing.

The cupboard is bare and – yet again – it is the community that loses.

I wonder what Ern Harris, who secured the ‘Lyndoch’ site all those years ago, would have to say? Or Sir Fletcher Jones, whose staff donated a portion of their wages each week to Lyndoch, what would he think?

Perhaps they would join us in asking: why has nobody been held to account?

[I want to mention the co-operation of the Respect Group CEO Jason Binder for this piece by answering questions quickly and openly. It was a refreshing reminder of how a community oriented, not-for-profit can operate.]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

If we needed any sign that the mask of Lyndoch has crumbled – and the rot from the past five years is impossible to hide – it’s the events that have happened this past week.

First, the Annual General Meeting was to be closed to the public for the first time in Lyndoch’s 70 year history.

Second, the AGM was cancelled, again for the first time in Lyndoch’s history.

Third, the cancellation is reportedly linked to the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office wanting more information. VAGO is taking a deep dive into the finances and boy, I hope they keep diving til they hit the very bottom.

Fourth, the GP clinic – for which Lyndoch paid $1.3 million in 2019 – is down from 16 to just 6 doctors, most of whom are part-time.

Fifth, there is no buyer for the $22 million, almost-empty primary care centre because nobody is silly enough to pay millions for a building with no tenants.

Sixth, the GP clinic has also failed to attract a buyer. (See Point 4.)

Seventh, the acting CEO Jill Davidson has admitted that Lyndoch was in financial distress and care of the elderly was severely lacking when she took over in late 2022.

All of which comes as absolutely no surprise to any of the battle-weary and scarred whistle-blowers and community voices who tried to head this all off at the pass.

They knew Lyndoch’s new direction was a disaster in the making. They knew the numbers didn’t add up. They knew our elderly weren’t receiving proper care. They knew GPs would be hard to lure to regional areas, and – Jill – it’s not because they can’t fly home on weekends.

What still saddens and angers me is not the ongoing spin from Lyndoch – that’s predictable – but how it was left to the smaller voices in the Warrnambool community, and the brave Lyndoch staff, to fight this battle, despite being threatened, disregarded and maligned, and often at great personal cost.

You are all owed an apology …. and our thanks.

If Lyndoch survives, it’s because of you, not those now claiming the credit.

So I am going to use my last piece to say we (still) see you, and we thank you. We all did our very best.

* * * *

[I have taken up a role with Reconciliation Tasmania for six months, so this will be my last piece for the Terrier for some time. Thankyou. And see you down the road.]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

The Lyndoch Living CEO (2015-2023) has officially departed.

I’m thinking of all the Lyndoch Living staff, residents and families who endured so much these past years. I hope you can now start to heal. This chapter, at least, is now over.

The next step is the removal of the board which has overseen this most terrible period in Lyndoch’s history.

If, as expected, South West Healthcare takes over Lyndoch Living, this is an inevitability.

We shall see.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

May Noonan in Terang is closing. How terribly sad. How utterly avoidable. Once again, the truth catches up with the spin being fed to the community. 

Perhaps the next step is Lyndoch Living telling us what’s happening with its Warrnambool facility – and the white elephant primary healthcare centre – and if mounting speculation that it will fold into South West Healthcare is correct. 

This option was first raised with me in February and seems increasingly more likely by the day. 

Former Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power, wherever you are, I hope you are feeling proud: this is your legacy. 

And to the board members who have overseen this slow train wreck these past years, bravo. You failed to listen, you failed to pay attention to all of the warnings and now here we are. 

You have failed the communities of Terang and Warrnambool and my only hope is Lyndoch remains in public hands.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I wasn’t able to talk about this legal action during the state election campaign, but a correction has since been published online by The Warrnambool Standard. I am publishing it tonight because people still ask me if I was “successfully sued” for writing about potential conflicts of interest at Lyndoch Living. I wasn’t.

My stories relating to this issue remain online. What was removed were Facebook comments that I believed were part of letting people have a say, but unfortunately freedom of speech is a tricky thing – everyone believes in it, until they don’t.

As a publisher of a Facebook page, the responsibility for comments falls to me, not Facebook. That ended up costing my insurer (via the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance) some money to settle, rather than spend even more money fighting it through court.

Such are the difficult times in which journalists work, but I hope it never stops journalists – especially local journalists – from asking the hard questions. See you down the road.