Around 3 in 10 older people have been waiting more than 12 months for their required level of care, new government data shows.
The Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt released the third home care data report on Friday, which for the first time included information on the time consumers have spent waiting on the national queue.
According to the report, 28,000 older people have been waitlisted for more than a year and almost all are waiting for a level 4 package.
Nearly all were receiving an interim package while they waited for their assessed level of care.
A further 27 per cent (28,000 older people) had been waiting between six and 12 months for their assessed package, the data showed.
At 31 December, there were 104,602 people on the national queue, an increase of 3 per cent on the previous quarter.
The Department of Health continued to advise older people with a medium priority that the wait time for a high-level package was more than 12 months and six to nine months for Level 1 and 2 packages.
Around 46 per cent of people on the national waitlist were assigned or receiving an interim package.
The department said strong approval volumes were driving growth in the size of the queue.
The report showed nationally 82,000 older people were on the queue for a high-level package, up from 79,000 at the end of September.
Over 31,000 people were approved for home care in the December quarter.
Consumers in care
Despite the large number of packages being released into the national pool, the number of consumers in care has increased by only 2.7 per cent (1,933 consumers) since the home care reforms started on 27 February.
At 30 September 2017, there were 74,205 consumers in a home care package, up from 72,272 in February 2017.
Of the consumers who exited a home care package during the September quarter, the median time in care was 12 months and the maximum time in care was 21 years, the report said.
Around 4 per cent of consumers in care exited each month during the quarterly reporting period.
Huge growth in market players
The number of industry players continues to rapidly expand reaching 806 approved providers at the end of December, up 61 per cent from mid-2016.
In the last quarter alone, the number of new providers increased by 5 per cent.
The department does not provide data on how many of these new home care providers already delivered some form of aged care.
Read the report in full here.
As one of those people waiting for a level 4 have level 3 I am totally disgusted with incompetence of My Aged Care, there is no transparency, little or no accountability, have been waiting over 850 days, was just reassessed 2 weeks ago, still medium level level 4, what this proves beyond all doubt is this government does care about Aged persons, I have decided to appeal the decision and the appeal has been lodged in NSW. I am 71 yr old male with an unnamed progressive incurable neurological condition, my wife is my carer, but she has just had back surgery, and it will be a long road back, she will not be able to push my manual power chair, I will not be put in a bloody home, have contacted my member Angus Taylor has not replied to my last 2 emails that is what we are up against, they just don’t care, it is an easy fix put the necessary funding instead of taking it out..
Everyone except the industry players who all make profits, have lost out on this deal. Aged Care and Disability services are not like Private Enterprise…..but that is exactly how the government is implementing Aged Care and Disability.
Just a private business who can pick and choose their clients. Needless to say, the money you have, the higher priority you will be.
Let’s cut the sham and see the Business for what it is. Opportunistic, parasitic and largely unaccountable for non disability renovations, major maintenance work on homes. And let’s not mention the number of relatives receiving home care outside the home of the Care Recipient while whilst the Care Recipient is overseas for upto the limit of 3 months.
Tax Payers and Aged People, Disabled People are sick of this absolute HYPOCRISY!!!!
Hello David and Val,
I’d love to chat about this for SBS. Please email me, if you like, at rena.sarumpaet@sbs.com.au
Hello,
Anyone who’d like to chat to SBS about this – please contact rena.sarumpaet@sbs.com.au. Thanks,
I am appealing an Aged Care Assessment, and I am not a happy camper, but more than that I really feel for the 110,000 people on the waiting list people already assessed who do not have the same advocacy skills as I have, I am totally disgusted with this charade called My Aged Care, faceless bureaucrats, who lack proper training, No accountability and no transparency, why do we accept this?, They are allowed 3 months to respond to my appeal, then they can ask me to take another ACAT by another team, well they can go to hell because I will not be doing that, already been assessed twice in the last 6 months, I am 71 years of age and have a progressive incurable neurological condition that effect 1 in 1 Million, the hypocrisy of these and other comments how good this government is towards seniors is mind boggling. End of rant..
Val, I finally got Home Mods to give me a quote to change entry to my bathroom and bedroom, they quoted me $26,000.00 then reduced to $16,000, then when I said I had an aged care package they reinstated the price plus management fees, my wife myself and a friend got together nutted out a simpler way of doing it, the cost worked out at about $4,00.00 which we paid out of our pockets.
I sent an email to SBS but to date have received no response, hopefully I will hear in next couple of days this issue is now front and center after the intervention in the Senate to highlight the glaring faults in the system, faults that the government seems to have no idea how to fix…really all it requires is funding, but then we are not the big end of town…
Funny was contacted by ABC and contacted SBS as requested, not heard back from either, disappointed, this disaster called My Aged Care has to be fixed it is causing untold damage to many vulnerable people..