Aged care bed grants raise more questions than answers with national shortage
On Friday (6 March), the Government committed $115 million in Commonwealth grants to pay for new aged care beds in four regions.
The announcement left many in the sector scratching their heads: aged care bed shortages are a national phenomenon so why restrict the grants to four locations?
The Weekly SOURCE asked the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing how it determined which regions the grants would prioritise, but at the time of publishing had not received a response.
Queensland ground zero for aged care shortages
Tim Nicholls, Health Minister for the Liberal National Party controlled Queensland Government, where there are nearly 1,000 long-stay older patients stuck in the state’s hospitals, said the state is “ground zero” for patients waiting for a place in residential aged care.
He released a video saying: “The Commonwealth Government is giving $115 million to New South Wales and South Australia (and Western Australia) to build aged care homes for older Australians. But there’s been none given to Queensland.”
“The Commonwealth is dropping the ball when it comes to helping older Queenslanders get the accommodation they need out of hospitals,” he said. “It’s simply not good enough.”
Demand for residential aged care in Queensland is also likely to soar in the years ahead due to the state’s rapidly ageing population. The average annual growth rate since 2020 for Queenslanders aged 65 and over is 3.5%, far ahead of the 1.6% growth for the rest of the population.
The state’s population aged 85 years and over has grown 4.6% in the last year alone.
Yet growth in the number of residential aged care beds per 1,000 of the population is declining. See the chart below.
Queensland bed numbers contracting
Some Queensland regions even experienced among the nation’s steepest declines in aged care bed numbers in 2024-25.
Recent Bolton Clarke analysis shows that of the 10 regions Australia-wide that lost the most aged care beds in 2024-25, three were in Queensland: Brisbane Inner-East lost 152 beds, Sherwood – Indooroopilly lost 75 beds, and Southport lost 58 beds.
Overall, Queensland gained only 26 aged care beds in 2024-25. See the table below.
The Government’s own projections put the need for beds across Australia at about 10,000 per year.
Based on our back-of-envelope calculations, last week’s grants announcement could contribute to the construction of around 1,300 new aged care beds in the targeted areas – if the grants are only being utilised to the tune of $5 million to $10 million to unlock shovel-ready projects.
