Despite home care providers reporting up to 30% of their clients had put their packages on hold, demand for respite care services has dramatically increased during COVID-19.

As we reported, the Department of Health introduced a streamlined process for providers to apply to increase their number of residential respite days in April to help ease the demand.

However, we understand some operators have been reluctant to take on respite residents during the pandemic because of the risk to permanent residents and staff.

Shortly after issuing the advice on the streamlined applications, the Department was forced to clarify that any services taking on respite residents still had to comply with social distancing measures and review their infection control measures to ensure client safety.

Estia also recently conceded in its market update that a “conservative approach” to new admissions and falling numbers of respite residents had contributed to a 2% drop in its occupancy – the equivalent of $10 million in revenue for the operator.

The Department tells us that just 343 out of the 2,717 services in Australia have applied to increase their respite capacity – or 12.6%.

While the data for May was not available yet, their spokesperson said 9,399 people had used residential respite services in April 2020.

If we say that the average aged care home takes in five respite residents in a month, that is 1,879 services – or 69%.

We won’t know how many elderly Australians may have missed out on a bed however.

The Department says it doesn’t have the data on the number of people who have been unable to access respite care during the pandemic.