Aged care gridlock: Community Home Australia moves stranded patients out of hospital
After six months of negotiations, Dr Rodney Jilek has signed a two-year deal to accommodate up to 15 patients waiting in hospital for residential aged care in Western Sydney.
At the beginning of February, Community Home Australia (CHA) signed a two-year Heads of Agreement with the Blue Mountains-Nepean Local Health District (BMNLHD) to deliver the Transitional Aged Care Program (TACP).
Under the TACP, CHA will deliver up to 12 weeks of multidisciplinary medical, nursing and allied health care at Kora House in Westmead, across the road from Westmead Hospital, 26km west of the Sydney CBD.
Long and complex negotiations
Despite more than 800 patients being stuck in NSW public hospitals waiting for aged care, the negotiations offering a partial solution were long and complex, Rodney, CHA’s Co-founder and Managing Director, told The Weekly SOURCE.
We first reported CHA was working with BMNLHD in September 2025. This formal signing of the Agreement allows the program to commence as a formal arrangement, said Rodney.
CHA and BMNLHD will meet again in a couple of weeks to iron out the final commencement details.
Encouraging early interest
Not For Profit aged care provider Scalabrini has expressed interest in receiving referrals from the program for their five western Sydney residential aged care homes.
“We have had interest from a number of residential aged care providers across western Sydney to receive referrals from the program, so don’t envisage anyone (older people taking part in the TACP) not being placed,” Rodney said.
Rodney is hoping more providers will register their interest.
What is the Transitional Aged Care Program?
Under the TACP at Kora House, residents will receive accommodation, care, assessment and care planning delivered by a range of specialists including:
- Medical (GP, geriatrician, pain, rehab)
- Nursing (General, mental health, dementia, gerontology)
- Occupational Therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Speech Pathology
- Positive Behavioural Support
- Recreation Therapy
- Psychology
- Pharmacy
- Nutrition & Dietetics and
- Exercise Physiology
Each TACP participant will have their own Comprehensive Support Plan. Assessments and reports will go to the receiving aged care service to support funding claims.
Negotiations for the agreement took six months, with the assistance of dementia specialist Monique Pockran, who has a personal connection with the program.
“The program is a direct result of Monique’s experience with her late father who was stuck in hospital for months awaiting aged care placement,” Rodney added.
Ongoing innovation
Rodney, who is a trained RN, co-founded the Canberra-based, young-onset dementia specialist, CHA, in 2020 with Nicole Smith, an RN and gerontologist. Nicole is now CHA’s Chief Operations Officer.
Today, CHA has four homes embedded in local communities, three in Canberra, and one in NSW. Last year, CHA announced plans to build a three-bed palliative care home for people living with dementia next door to one of the existing Canberra homes.
Community Homes Australia will be hosting its second annual Dementia Innovation Conference at their Aashaya Jasri Resort in Bali on 8-12 September 2026.
