‘Time to deliver’: blame shifted on hospital bed block
Stephanie Gardiner |
Political tensions over aged care funding appear set to continue while thousands of older Australians remain stranded in public hospital beds.
There are 3137 patients in Australia’s public hospitals waiting for aged care places, according to data state and territory health ministers presented to the federal government at a meeting in Canberra on Friday.
The number of aged care patients who have no medical reason to be in hospital has surged 30 per cent in five months, according to the ministers’ report card.
The ministers said keeping older patients in hospital was costing taxpayers “well over” $1 billion a year, with some stuck in hospital for years.
The situation was so dire in South Australia the government turned a city hotel into a transition care facility for older patients.
“We continue to call on the federal government to address this crisis that is their responsibility,” SA Health Minister Chris Picton said in a statement before the meeting.
“The 3137 older Australians currently stranded in hospitals right across the nation need a home, not a hospital bed.”
The plea highlighted ongoing political tensions, a fortnight after an eleventh-hour national cabinet deal providing states and territories with an extra $25 billion in federal funding for public hospitals.
After meeting with his counterparts on Friday, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the Commonwealth had proposed $2 billion of that extra funding be “ring-fenced” for aged care services.
But the states and territories instead directed the spending into their hospital systems, he said.
“We worked with state and territory governments in good faith. They have now received a significant uplift in their funding for public hospitals,” Mr Butler said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
“It is now time for the states to deliver on their promises to give Australians better access to health services they need, when they need them.”
State and territory ministers in turn pointed only to a communique from the meeting, which said there was an agreement about working together on the delayed discharge of older patients.
It also referred to discussions on mental health and disability reforms.
Mr Butler has previously acknowledged the scale of the growing aged care problem, saying a new facility needed to be opened every three days for the next 20 years to accommodate the ageing population.
“Demand for aged care services really is skyrocketing right now because we are in the midst of the first of the baby boomers turning 80,” Mr Butler told FIVEAA radio last week.
“It’s placing pressure right across the system. I know it’s placing pressure on hospitals.”
About 90,000 Australians were set to turn 80 in 2027, compared to roughly 15,000 in 2010, Mr Butler said.
He said while more facilities were quickly needed, the government was increasing the number of home care packages.
Queensland was experiencing the highest level of bed-blocking with 1096 aged care patients in public hospitals, followed by NSW at 848 and South Australia at 383, according to the report card.
AAP
