Lyndoch Living CEO says reports of asset dump are wrong

Independent journalist Carol Altmann published a story on Wednesday saying Lyndoch had not only decided to sell both assets, but was trying to sell them within the next four months as "financial ruin loom(ed)". Ms Davidson said the story wasn't right.

"It's not accurate," Ms Davidson said.

The Standard reported on February 2 that Lyndoch was considering selling the newly built primary care building as it sought to focus resources on its "core business", the provision of aged care. Ms Davidson said nothing had changed since that report.

"There's a lot of rumours in the community, and they have to be addressed because otherwise they just get bigger," she said. "There's no fire sale. We are trying to re-purpose the investment into the point of care."

Ms Davidson said she had been upfront about Lyndoch's financial situation and the suggestion the service was under time pressure to sell, or that a definitive decision had even been made, was incorrect.

"As you know, the financial situation is not good at all, and so we have to look at lots of different strategies," she said.

"If (the primary care building) sells it sells, if it doesn't sell there will be another option, but whatever happens it's going to be there in the best manner possible for the community."

Ms Altmann told The Standard she stood by the story.

Lyndoch does appear to have ditched the idea the centre could be the financial boon it was pitched as by long-time CEO Doreen Power, but Ms Davidson said that didn't detract from the immense organisational and clinical value it offered.

"I can't speak for previous misaligned concepts about buildings creating value, and our core business isn't buildings, but the precinct that has been created is really important," she said.

"It's so important to have a GP practice next to aged care because it's so difficult everywhere to get GPs to even take on an aged care resident, so we're very lucky with that.

"Regardless of how the building becomes managed having the GP practice there is gold for Lyndoch, it's fantastic."

Ms Davidson said she was bemused by the focus on whether Lyndoch owned the building.

"In terms of buildings, who owns the building is neither here nor there, and in the real world of medical practices which I know a fair bit about most buildings are owned by the super fund of one of the doctors or owned by an investor," she said.

"Look at the Royal Children's Hospital, they don't own the building."

Ms Davidson said Lyndoch was "looking at all sorts of strategies for May Noonan, but nothing's definite at the moment". She said the Terang service presented the challenge of a "small site in what I'd call a different community of interest".

Lyndoch is applying for government funding to redevelop the May Noonan building, which requires significant capital expenditure.

"There's work to be done and we can all see that. You'd have to gut the building out a little bit and make two rooms into one to put in an inboard bathroom, so we're looking at lots of different options," Ms Davidson said.

She was pleased to say Lyndoch had admitted 35 new residents since December, bringing occupancy to 72 per cent, and she had started a major review into the service's funding model.

"The whole financial turnaround in aged care is often in revenue, more than any other sector... there can be a big difference between the amount being paid per resident per day and what it actually should be," she said.

"Several years ago I took on a much larger Victorian provider with nine sites that was in 10 per cent deficit, and I built up a funding team, and at the end of 12 months we were at $4.2 million profit.

"The opportunity to do that now isn't as grand because the Commonwealth has crunched down the model, but it's taught me that you have to look closely at the revenue."

Ms Davidson said there was "a lot going on" at Lyndoch, with every expense being scrutinised as resources were all channelled into clinical care.

"Investment has to be in clinical services, not on a whole lot of non-clinical services, so we are rejigging a whole lot of things to try to do that," she said.

"At the end of the day what's best for the community and residents is what's in focus."