The Government has revealed its largest-ever allocation of 13,500 new residential aged care places for the 2018-19 Aged Care Approval Round (ACAR), with 5,000 allocated to rural and remote areas – almost double the previous round.
The expansion is part of the Government’s $662 million aged care funding boost announced last month.
The new beds will pump out an extra $907 million a year into existing operator budgets.
This significant increase in regional allocations follows the Government’s introduction of a new six-category priority system which can give precedence to applications in rural and remote areas.
Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, said older Australians who are financially challenged, from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or LGBTI communities, or veterans, are also among those who will have priority access to more than 23 per cent of the new places.
The full ACAR results are available here.
