Two of Australia’s largest independent, not-for-profit aged care providers today announced plans to merge into a single organisation capable of delivering more high quality services to more people every day.

Board Chairman of RSL Care, Mr Pat McIntosh, and RDNS Board Chairman, Mr Paul Montgomery, said the decision to combine strengths would give customers access to a comprehensive continuum of services from home nursing and support, through to retirement living and residential care.

“The Boards have identified this opportunity to create one trusted organisation enabling us to leverage our combined scale and experience. Working together we can deliver more health and wellbeing services for more Australians than we could possibly provide alone,” Mr McIntosh said.

“With a combined history of over 200 years of continuous service to the community, RDNS, like RSL Care, share a proud legacy of service to Veterans and their families. By joining forces we will deepen our commitment and further enhance our service to this important group.”

Mr Montgomery said: “Today marks the beginning of the journey to bring together two organisations with a shared mission and commitment to deliver high quality services, and to positively respond to the changing needs and expectations of our clients.

“Australia’s health and aged care sectors are experiencing unprecedented change. The move to consumer directed care, advances in technology, and the demands of an ageing population are transforming the landscape in which we work.

“These developments create enormous growth opportunities for RDNS and RSL Care and we can best respond to those opportunities by merging to become a bigger and stronger organisation.”

Crucially, the merger will be managed in a way that ensures total continuity of services for clients and residents of RDNS and RSL Care, plus stability for employees.

A snapshot of merged capability

• More than 6,000 staff plus over 400 volunteers
  
• Working with more than 25,000 customers every day
  
• More than 4 million home visits made to clients every year
  
• Provision of Veterans’ support to more than 22,000 people per annum
  
• Delivery of more than 25,000 episodes of care using telehealth
  
• An asset base of more than $1 billion and combined revenue of approx. $500M
  
• Combined reach and influence in communities across Australia, operations in New Zealand and a recognised presence in Asia
  
• Strong delivery in research, innovation and design with RSL Care complementing the industry-leading research conducted by the RDNS Institute
  
• A Registered Training Organisation courtesy of RDNS’ Education and Learning Centre
  

Stephen Muggleton, designated CEO charged with building the strengths of these two organisations into a single entity, expressed his conviction that the merger would bring significant benefits to customers, staff and the wider community.

“This is a complementary merger of two organisations from a genuine position of strength and compatibility,” Mr Muggleton said.

“By bringing together our expertise and research capacity, we can build our understanding of customer experiences and create innovative services that better support customers and promote independence.”

Mr Muggleton said the organisations were complementary in many ways, sharing a strong alignment and a deeply felt commitment to improving the lives of more Australians.

“We are not just adding two organisations together,” Mr Muggleton said.

“We are multiplying our capability and reach of service by bringing together two innovative and trusted organisations. The new merged organisation will be beautifully positioned to provide a range of flexible services to a growing aged population across Australasia. The broad range of clinical services also allows the organisation to provide practical solutions like chronic disease management, hospital avoidance programs, transition care and rehabilitation for Local Hospital Networks and Primary Health Networks.”

This media release was directly sourced from the RSL Care website here.