Three Councils in Far North Queensland have united to have an aged care home built to stop people being forced away from the region to receive care.
Cook Shire, Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire and Wujal Aboriginal Shire have identified Council-owned land for an aged care home near the Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service (pictured).
“It’s our land but we don’t have the staff or resources to run it, we’ve got to find somebody like Blue Care or Anglicare,” Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott told Cairns Post.
“Blue Care run the Cape York Family Centre and it’s a fabulous operation.”
He added Torres and Cape Health Services provided aged care accommodation and Sunbird had six cottages at the hospital.
“When we were chasing a renal dialysis satellite operation here 20 years ago, we did a lot of study on people who had to leave home and go to Cairns, and we identified if you could stay living locally, life expectancy improved by 30%,” Peter said.
“That fits for old age and dementia care, people would much prefer to be on country with a spiritual attachment and family attachment as well, not relying on strangers.”
Can such a project be viable however without Government support?
Operating a 40-bed aged care home, as proposed, is financially unsound, StewartBrown Senior Partner Grant Corderoy told Total Construction’s Aged Care Leaders’ Breakfast last Thursday.
