Australia needs 200,000 more aged care beds over the next 20 years – and aged care leaders say we won’t get there without tackling two big issues: capital access and hospital-to-aged care transitions.
Speaking at the opening day of the IHACPA Conference aged care reform panel in Adelaide on Wednesday, Mark Richardson, Assistant Secretary of the Residential Care and Reform Branch at the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, said the sector is more financially stable than it was several years ago – but flagged the urgent need to unlock investment for growth.
“The forecasts are another 200,000 [beds] over the coming decades – that’s about another 10,000 beds a year on average. In order to meet that demand, a viable sector is a sector that’s expanding,” he said, underlining that these were his own opinions.
“All of this costs money. Are there things the Government can do to reduce the price of capital and enable the sector to access that capital more easily?”
Mark also floated the need for a conversation on how providers generate margin.
“We need to contemplate how to incorporate margins – whether it’s generated by the provider providing non-legislative services or whether or not Government has a hand.”
Investment alone won’t solve one of the sector’s other major pinch points: the growing number of older people stuck in hospital beds waiting for aged care.
Tom Symondson, CEO of peak body Ageing Australia, said hospitals and aged care providers both need to shift their approach.
“There are plenty of people in hospital who absolutely cannot go to residential care – the only reason people think they can is because they’re over 65. And then there are plenty of people who can,” he said.
“We have to be more willing to take people who do provide us with a little bit more risk than the average person moving in from their home.”
Natalie Siegel-Brown, the Inspector-General of Aged Care, warned against viewing older people as “bed blockers” and highlighted simple interventions like dental care that could prevent hospital admissions altogether.
“If we provided dental care as part of the system… we could actually stop the rotation of older people coming through hospitals inordinately,” she said.
