Blame game: bed shortage burdens WA health system

A Perth hearing of the Senate inquiry into aged care reveals that the state’s undersubscriptions are having a significant knock on effect.

Western Australia has a severe shortage of Commonwealth-funded aged care beds and this is placing a huge burden on the state health system.

A public hearing in Perth for the Senate’s inquiry into aged care heard that the state government is spending millions of dollars to provide alternative care and accommodation arrangements because the industry cannot afford to build sufficient beds.

Gail Milner from the WA Department of Health told the Senate’s Finance Committee that each day there are between 420 and 440 older clients waiting for residential care throughout the state.

A quarter of these clients are waiting in public hospital beds.

Ms Milner said that close to 1,500 approved aged care beds in WA are not operational and only 56 per cent of the available beds were likely to be taken up in the current Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR).

“The aged-care sector in WA is experiencing considerable stress,” she told the inquiry.

“The level of operational places across community and residential [care] has been insufficient to meet current demand.”

As a result the state health system has been forced to triple the number of places in its Care Awaiting Placement (CAP) program since 2001, from 80 to 272.

The CAP places are provided to people who have undergone a Commonwealth assessment for aged care but are unable to find a place.

In 2007, the state government spent $25 million on its CAP program and it is currently operating at 98 per cent occupancy.

The WA Government has also implemented a program to provide state-funded community care packages for clients waiting to receive Commonwealth-funded packaged care.

“At the moment we are spending $1 million [on this program] in the metropolitan area and we are anticipating spending some more money on that type of program because it seemed to be fairly effective,” Ms Milner said.

Cam Ansell from Grant Thornton’s aged care services division warned the inquiry that this scenario was likely to worsen without substantial change.

“In terms of the future, in the absence of reform, we will place significant pressure on the acute sector, on our hospitals,” he said.

“And we are likely to experience some of the international experiences of having many people in hospitals not because they are ill but because they are old.”

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