00:04Homesick and sick of a hospital she didn't need to be in.
00:09You won't have to come in here ever again.
00:13Well, hopefully not.
00:15Going home is momentous for Irene.
00:18Oh, look, Mum, we should pull up here.
00:21After being admitted on Boxing Day with pneumonia...
00:24Here, Mum.
00:25..she spent a month longer in hospital than required
00:28because she couldn't access the level of support she needed at home.
00:33Mum really, really wanted to come home.
00:35She just wanted her own space, her own routine.
00:39Come on in.
00:41Home suites home.
00:42And it's come at a cost.
00:45It's incredibly frustrating.
00:46I really just wanted to spend the last little while that Mum has left
00:53just being family and just being a daughter.
01:01Lengthy hospital stays have led to a lengthy political battle.
01:05It's a national disgrace.
01:07There is a degree of urgency that is required here.
01:09We can't all be wrong.
01:10The issue of so-called bedblock was front and centre
01:14of a protracted spat with the states and territories
01:17over public hospital funding.
01:19The inks barely dry on a new deal,
01:22but they've again assembled in a call for action.
01:25We need to see a level of priority given to what state
01:29and territory ministers would argue is one of the biggest challenges
01:32facing their health systems right now.
01:35The ABC has obtained new figures revealing almost 3,300 aged care patients
01:41are stranded in hospital beds across the nation.
01:45That's compared to almost 2,500 patients in September,
01:49a 35% increase in about six months.
01:53It's a terrible situation for them and their dignity,
01:56and it's a terrible situation for a public hospital system
02:00that relies on those beds.
02:02As most states balance their own budgets deep in deficit,
02:06they're sniffing extra vulnerability from a federal government
02:08partly return to power on the strength of its health care promises.
02:12To try to both appease them and address a serious issue,
02:16the Commonwealth has agreed to a national task force
02:18and announced an extra 5,000 beds a year.
02:21But it's got its own budgetary constraints to consider,
02:24and with more than 200,000 people waiting for aged care services,
02:29it's starting from behind.
02:31It is going to cost the Commonwealth a lot of money,
02:34but the issue is there just aren't those beds there now.
02:39The type of beds built are also crucial.
02:42Good to see you again.
02:43Great to see you again.
02:45Hello.
02:45Special dementia care units like this one in Melbourne
02:48are equipped to take on the cases so complex
02:51they're sometimes left in hospital.
02:54That's wonderful.
02:54Yes, thank you.
02:55We've now got them into a better place,
02:57and the number of people who have had to go back to hospital,
03:00it's very few.
03:01Joe comes and visits you, though.
03:03The federal government's committed $200 million
03:06to help more people into facilities like this,
03:09but advocates argue it won't go far enough
03:12and are also calling on the government
03:13to incentivise providers to take on complex cases.
03:17Aged care providers absolutely cherry-pick
03:20the type of people that they want.
03:22If someone's difficult, they tend to say,
03:25we don't have the capacity to support you.
03:28Want me to play a tune for you?
03:30Yeah.
03:33Tuning in to the debate over the future of stranded patients
03:36are those at the centre of it.
03:40It's just unfathomable.
03:41They're extremely vulnerable people,
03:43and it's not their fault.
03:45They've just got nowhere else to go.
03:46Vulnerable people hoping a chorus of complaints creates change.
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