State Premiers warned last month there were about 2,500 older patients in public hospitals awaiting an aged-care placement. Today, that figure is closer to 2,800 – a 12% jump in a month – worsening the already stretched lack of acute beds.

For the first time, The Weekly SOURCE has obtained Victorian data showing 246 older people in the state’s hospitals are clinically ready for discharge to residential aged care.

Victoria – home to 150-plus Government-owned aged care homes and roughly three-quarters of Australia’s public facilities – has been praised for avoiding “maintenance care” bottlenecks; yet the new numbers raise questions about whether those historical advantages still hold.

In NSW, Health Minister Ryan Park says the human and system costs are mounting. The number of patients waiting for aged care and disability placements has surged more than 60% in 12 months, he said, and the flow-on effect is immediate.

“What that means in an acute hospital setting is reduction in beds for people needing acute services, and that’s what keeps me up at night.”

He urged the Commonwealth to better manage and fund aged care and the NDIS, which he argues are pushing unfunded risk into state hospitals.

The escalation comes as States negotiate a new hospital funding deal with the Commonwealth. Canberra has offered an extra $20 billion over five years, but Premiers say the package doesn’t match the reality on the wards – particularly the growing cohort of ‘stranded’ patients who are medically fit but stuck, awaiting an aged care place.