Photo: Victor Wong (used under Creative Commons license)
An inspection of Chilton Meadows, a care home for elderly people with dementia in Stowmarket, Suffolk, in March 2021, found a number of residents with distressed behaviours including one using a walking frame the wrong way round. The home also had radiator pipes carrying scalding hot water with no protective covering to protect residents who might have fallen on them.
Chilton Meadows is run by Bupa (British United Provident Association), a UK based international healthcare company. Founded in 1947, Bupa was originally a health insurance company. It now owns and runs clinics, hospitals and care homes in Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United States. All told, some 20,000 elderly people live in its facilities, with about a third of that number in Australia and a third in England.