11,987 elderly Australians passed away in the last financial year on the Federal Government’s national home care prioritisation queue – or over 230 a week, according to the latest data report on the home care packages program covering 1 July to 30 September 2019.
Almost 50,000 of the 112,000 people sitting on the queue were offered a lower level package to stay at home, but around 18,000 people were forced into residential care in 2018-19.
The numbers take the shine off the overall 30% increase (27,404 packages) in the number of packages since September 2018.
In total, the Federal Government has allocated $2.7 billion to 44,000 home care packages since July 2018 – suggesting the Department of Health’s evidence to the Royal Commission that it would take $5 billion a year to clear the waiting list is on the money – literally.
