One year after the new Aged Care Act promised to put the rights of older Australians first, too many are still waiting for the care they need.
Ageing Australia CEO Tom Symondson said while the landmark legislation has successfully established rights on paper, they mean little if care is not available in practice.
“Older Australians have been promised rights-based care. But that promise means little if the care simply isn’t available,” Mr Symondson said.
“The Government must now work with the sector to address the growing crisis in access to care. More than 200,000 older Australians are waiting for an aged care assessment or the care they have been approved for, the average wait for a Support at Home package has reached 300 days, and almost 4,000 older people remain stuck in hospital because they cannot access the care they need in the community.”
“The right to quality care once you get through the door rings hollow if an older person waits months to be assessed and months more for the approved funding to arrive or they cannot find a residential care bed anywhere near their family and community.”
“Care delayed is care denied. And rationing care does not make a person’s needs disappear. It simply shifts the responsibility and the cost onto an older person, their partner, their children or the hospital system,” said Mr Symondson.
Residential aged care is facing the same capacity crisis. National bed occupancy has reached 95 per cent, while only a fraction of the 10,000 additional beds needed each year are being built.
“Following the Government’s decision in October to increase residential care funding by less than inflation and wage growth, they have forced providers to shelve plans for more than 4,000 beds. As a result Australia could record a fall in residential aged care bed numbers for the first time since 1963,” Mr Symondson said.
“The new Aged Care Act was a landmark achievement, and our sector remains committed to making it a success. But legislation alone cannot deliver care. We need the funding, workforce and infrastructure to make those rights a reality.
“One year on, older Australians should not still be waiting months for care they desperately need, or stuck in a hospital bed because there’s nowhere else for them to go. And providers should not be hanging on for dear life while Government takes away the very money they need to survive and grow.”
“The Government has made a promise to older Australians and to our sector. Now it needs to deliver on that promise.”
Background note for News editors
Ageing Australia is calling on the Australian Government to:
- Address immediate funding pressures on residential aged care providers, following a 2.55% indexation increase that fell well short of both CPI and the independently modelled 5.17% required.
- Establish a national aged care investment plan to support the development of around 10,000 additional residential aged care places each year.
- End the rationing of home care by clearing Support at Home waitlists and ensuring older Australians can access the care they have been assessed as needing.
