Triple Number Aged Care Beds Needed by 2020
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
2 Feb 2012
Triple the number of aged care beds needed in
less than 10 years.
By 2020 triple the number of aged care beds will be needed for older Australians. But despite the Federal Government's 2010 election promise, urgently needed reforms for the nation's rapidly ageing population have yet not been addressed.
"We knew there was a deficit in funding to the aged care sector but until now we had no idea that there was an average loss for every aged care bed in Australia of as much as $62 dollar per day," says Martin Laverty, CEO of Catholic Health Australia which represents 550 Catholic aged care and community services and 75 of the nation's Catholic private and public hospitals.
"The aged care system is on its last legs," he says and adds with this sort of loss per bed per day, the economics mean it is no longer viable for CHA or any other aged care provider to commit to building the types and number of beds that are needed to meet future demand.
Not only will three times the number of aged care beds be needed by 2020 but by 2050 more than 3.2 million aged Australians will be need of some form of care.
A year ago, the Productivity Commission handed down its "Caring for Older Australian's Report" which recommended what measures could be taken to ensure the aged care sector could be made sustainable once more. The Report also focussed on giving older Australians more flexibility, greater choice in services they wished to access and the option of being able to stay in their own home as long as possible, if this is what they wanted.
The Catholic Church operates 75 hospitals and
550 residential and community aged care
services throughout Australia
The Productivity Commission's Report detailed where the aged care system was failing older Australians. But it took a report, released yesterday to show just how badly.
Commissioned by a consortium of industry peak bodies and providers, which included Catholic Health Australia, Aged and Community Services Australia and Australian Unity, and undertaken by accountancy firm, Graham Thornton Australia, the Report entitled "Australian Cost of Residential Care Research" not only revealed aged care operators currently faced a funding shortfall of $62 per bed per day, but found rate of return each year was such that the entire system was unsustainable.
To achieve an acceptable return on capital investment, the Report discovered providers needed to make between $26,500 and $32,000 per high care bed before tax each year. But the figure being achieved was well below this at just $6700 per year.
"This is why it is so urgent for both sides of Government to endorse the Productivity Commission's Report and begin implementing its recommendations," says Mr Laverty and calls on Labor and the Coalition to work together to ensure this happens as soon as possible.
Reforms to aged care sector urgently needed
"When you factor in how long it takes to provide a new aged care facility from planning to construction, fit out, staff training and actually opening its doors, we are looking at a five year lag," he says and warns that without the urgent reform to the aged care system, older Australians will continue to miss out on the care they need and would like to access.
He is also concerned at the added pressure the current shortage of aged care beds is putting on hospitals, and predicts this can only get worse with the rapidly aging baby boomer generation.
"Every night of the year there are up to 3000 aged people in public hospital beds who would be better cared for in a regular aged care facility or nursing home," he says. "Not only does this tie up beds for people being admitted to hospital and triggering pressure on the entire hospital system, but the cost of operating a hospital bed is triple the cost of a bed in an aged care home."
Martin Laverty
Under current regulations accommodation payments to high care aged providers is $32 per day. But the Thornton Report finds the real cost of accommodation is double this amount.
Using a single room with an ensuite is to be used as a standard for aged care accommodation into the future, then both government and private funds will be needed to make this possible, says Mr Laverty who endorses the Productivity Commission's recommendation that Australians contribute up to $60,000 to the cost of their aged care accommodation as well as other uncapped charges.
The recommendations, which included means testing so those on lower incomes had access to quality care, also included a provision that would prevent the forced sale of a family home. Instead through a government-backed low-cost reverse mortgage scheme funds could be raised to pay for a wife or husband's nursing home care while the healthy spouse could remain living in the family home.
"The Government has had some months to consider the Productivity Commission Report but so far there is no action on the Report and so far no provision in the 2012 Budget for aged care reform," says Mr Laverty.
