Government urged to do more to address 2,500 hospital patients waiting for aged care beds

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A report prepared by the South Australian government will be presented to a meeting of health ministers in Perth today, with the states and territories calling on the federal government to do more to address what they say is a critical aged care crisis affecting hospitals around the nation.

Transcript

00:00Well, they're hoping to press the federal government for action on what they say is

00:05a shortage of aged care beds that's leading to flow-on effects upstream into the hospital

00:10sector.

00:11They've compiled figures today showing 2,500 older Australians are in hospital with no

00:17medical reason to be there.

00:20The South Australia's health minister has told the ABC a number of those are in those

00:25hospital beds for months or even years and that's costing the taxpayer a billion dollars.

00:31The report that has been released by the state and territory health ministers today says a

00:36lack of residential aged care beds and the inability of that sector to deal with older

00:42Australians with complex needs is meaning that public hospitals have become aged care providers

00:49of last resort.

00:50So they're hoping to press the federal health minister, Mark Butler, for action on the

00:54on that today.

00:57They say that they want the government to address what is a crisis in aged care across the country.

01:03The federal government has been under pressure over aged care in recent weeks.

01:07It was pressured by the Coalition and the Crossbench to fast-track 20,000 home care packages.

01:14Those are for older Australians to receive services inside their homes and not in residential facilities.

01:20But as for this issue, Mark Butler was asked about this this morning, about whether he's open

01:25to working with the states and he says he is open to working with them to see what can be done.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended