Barchester under fire over chief’s £200k pay rise

Barchester Healthcare has come under fire after it was revealed that Chief Executive Dr Pete Calveley received a £200,000 pay rise last year.

Company accounts figures showed Dr Calveley’s salary rose to £914,000 last year compared with £702,000 in the previous year, despite Barchester posting a £1.5m loss.

The Times highlighted that Dr Calveley’s pay rise had come despite, 35 of Barchester’s 174 care homes and community services in England being rated ‘requires improvement’ and four being rated ‘inadequate’.

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Norman Lamb, former Liberal Democrat Care Minister, said Dr Calveley’s pay rise was disgusting, adding: “Given the awful ratings … this seems to be a reward for failure.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care added: “Services that deliver inadequate care will have to improve or risk being closed down.”

A Barchester spokesperson said: “The current management of Barchester Healthcare has overseen not only continuous improvement in the ratings for its nursing and residential homes, so that nearly 80% of our facilities are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission and we outperform the care quality average in every care category, but also an improvement in the financial performance of the group, which was recently rated 14^th in the Sunday Times Top Track list of growth companies in the UK. Where there is underperformance, we take rapid and decisive action and we have seen the quality of care improve in those homes accordingly.”

Barchester is believed to have been put up for sale for £2.5bn by current owners, Irish businessmen Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier (see Investor interest heats up ahead of bid deadline, report).