State and Territory Health Ministers have called on the Federal Government to accelerate the delivery of aged care beds, warning hospitals are being clogged with older patients who have nowhere else to go.
Meeting with Federal Health, Disability and Ageing Minister Mark Butler in Perth, Ministers highlighted data showing nearly 2,500 older Australians are stuck in hospital beds waiting for an aged care placement.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said close to 1,000 patients are stranded in NSW hospitals alone.
“It’s terrible for them, it’s terrible for their families, it’s terrible for the staff, and it’s terrible for the communities that rely on accessing healthcare,” he said. “I’ve been raising this for two years. I don’t really see why we can’t be doing more to address these problems.”
Butler responds
Speaking to ABC Radio last Friday (12 September), Minister Butler acknowledged the scale of the challenge, but argued the Government’s aged care reforms are already stimulating new construction. He said the number of aged care beds being built in 2026 would be “close to twice as many” as those completed this year.
Providers remain cautious. HammondCare CEO Andrew Thorburn said most of the patients waiting in hospital require dementia care – a group poorly suited to acute wards.
“Hospital wards are not the best place for people with complex dementia to receive the ongoing support they need,” he said.
HammondCare recently launched the Hospital to Aged Care Dementia Support Program, a Commonwealth-funded program run by Dementia Support Australia, part of HammondCare, which supports people living with dementia to transition between hospital and aged care.
The warning comes as states roll out their own initiatives, including South Australia’s new “geriatric flying squad” and NSW’s transitional care programs, to relieve hospital pressures. But Ministers say without a significant increase in aged care places, hospitals will remain gridlocked.
