Govt funds 73 new aged care beds in region where 1,000 needed
- Funding boost: Six Illawarra projects receive $25.9 million in ACCAP grants
- New capacity: Expansions will deliver 73 residential aged care beds
- Private operator: Greenhill Aged Care secures $4 million expansion grant
- Demand gap: New beds fall well short of regional need
Aged Care and Seniors Minister Sam Rae has visited Wollongong today as the Federal Government attempts to ease pressure in Australia’s worst hospital bed block region.
The Minister announced six Aged Care Capital Assistance Program (ACCAP) grants valued at $25.9 million which will fund 73 beds in total, a week after awarding $34.4 million for five projects in Adelaide, South Australia.
The funding is aimed at bringing the additional beds online within two years.
Not For Profits Warrigal, Uniting NSW.ACT and IRT and Tulich family-owned Greenhill Aged Care will receive grants for six projects. See details below.
The projects are also intended to increase the supply of beds for older people with higher and complex care needs, including dementia.
Hillside at Figtree 20-bed expansion
Greenhill Aged Care’s Hillside at Figtree, received a $4 million ACCAP grant towards their 20-bed project’s total cost of $12 million.
The project will increase capacity from 86 to 106 residential aged care beds, plus add new dining and lounge areas, an expanded nursing station, and contemporary technology systems.
Vitas Tulich, CEO of Greenhill Aged Care, said the grant would enable Greenhill at Figtree to respond to clear community need and the future of aged care in the Illawarra.
“The new community will provide private rooms, welcoming communal and outdoor spaces, a dedicated cultural wellbeing room, and contemporary clinical and safety infrastructure,” he said. “Its dementia-enabling design will support dignity, independence, wellbeing and connection for residents with a range of care needs,” he said.
Minister Rae said the grants reflect the Government’s “methodical work to take pressure off state-run hospitals and move quickly to identify areas where bed capacity is most urgently needed.”
More than 3,000 older Australians are currently stuck in hospital beds nationally, medically ready for discharge but unable to access aged care or home care services.
Cunningham MP Fiona Byrnes admitted the Illawarra was experiencing a “critical shortage of aged care beds for too long”, adding “there’s more to do”.
Grants aim at getting beds up quickly
The awarding of the Illawarra grants comes only four months after Expressions of Interest for the grants opened.
The grants have been targeted at regions where hospitals are struggling to discharge older patients who are waiting for residential aged care, and is targeting projects that can be built within two years.
The second tranche of grants will go to projects in Perth and NSW's Hunter region.
With $60.3 million allocated to Adelaide and the Illawarra, and total grants announced in March of $115 million, around $54.7 million now remains for the Perth and Hunter projects.
Expressions of interest for ACCAP grants for the Perth and Hunter regions opened in early June.
Research by Community Industry Group, the peak body for community service providers in the Illawarra, found the region is short approximately 1,000 residential aged care beds after years of bed closures. Just 25 aged care beds have been added in the Illawarra over 10 years.
In total, Australia added only around 800 residential aged care beds in 2024-25, with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing estimating the country needs roughly 10,000 new beds annually over the next two decades to keep pace with the growing older population.
