Aged care crisis: Lest we forget
by John Pratt [0]

The Australian Government is working on its election commitment to get 2000 older Australians who are occupying hospital beds into appropriate aged care – freeing up valuable hospital resources for those needing urgent treatment [1].

This is about getting older Australians into the care they need rather than a hospital.

The Productivity Commission found the average cost of a hospital bed was $1,117 a day – while the average cost of an aged care bed was about $100 a day. (Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act 1997, 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007, p.39.)

“This is about making sure that older Australian get appropriate aged care and making sure that hospital beds are available to Australians of all ages waiting for treatment,” Federal Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot, said.

The new Federal Minister is in for a shock if she thinks an extra 2000 or so aged care beds can be produced by the stroke of a pen. I have worked in aged care in Cairns for about five years; there has never been such an urgent demand for aged care beds as now. I rang an aged care residential facility on Friday trying to get a bed for an 87 year old. I was told the waiting list was over 200. That is for one facility – there are about ten other facilities in Cairns all with similar waiting lists. 2000 beds are about what is required in Cairns alone. With the ageing population no long term plan has been put into place to care for our elderly. We don’t have enough aged care beds or the staff to care for our elderly either in residential care or home care. The crisis is affecting the health care system as a whole with hospital beds being taken up by the nations elderly while people requiring acute care are unable to find a bed.

With most families having two breadwinners, families are struggling to care for their older parents or grandparents. It is costing the nation a fortune as the price of a hospital bed is about ten times the cost of an aged care bed. We need to act now before we are completely overwhelmed by the baby boomers who are just reaching the age where they will require more care.

We must not forget our elderly, who have paid taxes and fought for our standard of living. It will be a disgrace to our society if we let the last years of their lives be lived in squalor and substandard care.

The current system is failing with many aged care workers quitting through burn out and lack of support from the general community. We need a thorough overhaul of the entire system.