SA govt announces plan to ‘unblock aged care’
The South Australian government has put forward several proposals to address bed shortages, including a change to ANACC funding, but Ageing Australia says the plan goes too far.
The South Australian government has announced the opening of 55 extra beds at the refurbished Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre to improve the transition from hospital to aged care in metropolitan parts of the state.
The beds form part of a new 70-bed specialised care and bridging service, The Care of the Older Person and Community Transition (CO-ACT), which has been introduced under a staged approach in consultation with clinicians, unions, patients and families.
South Australia has the lowest vacancy rate for aged care beds, and data published by South Australia Health last week showed 241 older South Australians in metropolitan hospitals are waiting to access a residential aged care facility, and a further 100 are waiting to access beds in a Memory Support Unit.
The South Australian government said there has been little change in the total number of federal aged care beds in the last few years, despite the growing older demographic, which has led to demand for aged care placements outstripping supply and longer time spent waiting unnecessarily in acute care.
To tackle this, the South Australian government has put forward several proposals, including:
- the loss of a portion of ANACC funding on a sliding scale basis to disincentivise providers from consistently refusing placements
- charging people the full rate for their hospital stay if they refuse two genuine offers of placement
- including an assessment on a provider’s acceptance rate in the aged care star ratings.
The star ratings proposal suggests allowing for adjustment – to ensure providers aren’t adverse to accepting high complex needs clients due to concerns for their star rating.
The plan to ‘unblock aged care’ also includes a proposal to provide an additional priority round for the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program – which would include metropolitan areas.
South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas said: “As a government we are pulling every lever to deliver a bigger health system with more capacity to treat those in need.”
“We are delivering hundreds of extra doctors, nurses, ambos, allied health professionals, and of course beds.”
However, peak body for providers Ageing Australia has warned that the SA government’s plan is “unworkable” and could undermine care quality and safety.
Ageing Australia chief executive officer Tom Symondson urged the SA government to work with the sector to find solutions, saying they believe there are measures that have not been explored.
“You can’t fix hospital blockages by punishing aged care providers already under pressure. We need partnership, not penalties. Aged Care is at near peak capacity, so we need to find a way together,” he said.
Ageing Australia acknowledged the capital funding and support for complex care needs as positive but said other proposals would unfairly penalise providers for things they can’t control, instead calling for collaborative and system-wide solutions.
“Providers are ready to be part of the solution – but threatening funding cuts, and public shaming for not accepting high-needs hospital patients, who cannot be realistically supported under current settings, goes too far,” said Mr Symondson.
Ageing Australia pointed to the need to address the root causes of delayed discharge and of the financial viability issues limiting providers’ ability to invest in refurbishing facilities and new builds.
“It is also critical that aged care services receive adequate funding to meet the increasingly complex needs of older people who require residential care. In particular, many of those older people in hospital for an extended period have clinical and care needs that far outstrip the staffing available in aged care currently,” Mr Symondson said.
“We continue to push for a coordinated national strategy on bed capacity, involving both state and the federal governments.”
Minister for Health and Wellbeing of South Australia Chris Picton told Australian Ageing Agenda that the funding and policy reform is not about penalising providers for being full.
“South Australia has had a 23 per cent decline in operational aged care beds per capita since 2017, and our focus is on stimulating new aged care capacity through funding and policy reform,” he explained to AAA.
“As well as providing more funding and incentives for providers, we believe it is also reasonable to have disincentives for the very small number of providers who consistently cherry pick residents, not fulfilling obligations to their community. This is not about penalising providers just because they are full.“
“We welcome the discussion and the opportunity for the sector to put forward other proposals to address these backlogs, what is unacceptable is continuing to leave these residents stranded in public hospital beds for months on end,” he added.
Chief executive officer of the provider member organisation Aged Care Industry Association, Peter Hoppo, told Australian Ageing Agenda that Minister Picton deserves credit for listening to the sector and delivering practical solutions that reflect the challenges providers face on the ground when it comes to helping people transition from hospital.
“While we’d need more detail before endorsing every part of the proposal, it’s definitely a positive step – and a welcome one,” he said to AAA.
“It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be stuck in hospital with nowhere else to go. We strongly urge Health Ministers and governments across the country to draw a line in the sand and follow Minister Picton’s lead.’
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