Just 1,623 new bed licences were awarded to WA in this year’s Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) despite 3,829 applications being made.
There, the lack of respite beds particularly in aged care homes means many elderly hospital patients have nowhere to go for medical care after a hospital visit.
In WA, the average stay for a regional patient is between eight and nine days – for a patient in NSW, it’s just five days.
Now the State Government is doing something about it.
Putting patients first
They are championing the construction of ‘Medihotels’ – specialist hotels designed to support patients who are discharged from hospital but are still recovering.
They are not a new idea – several Medihotels are successfully run in Victoria and Queensland, but on a much smaller scale than the WA plan.
The first one is being built at Landcorp’s Murdoch Health and Knowledge Precinct, 12km south of the Perth CBD. The integrated precinct will include the 60-room ‘hotel’ plus a 150-bed aged care facility both run by aged care provider Aegis; plus a ‘super’ medical clinic, short-stay accommodation and residential apartments.
The Government says the hotels will free up more hospital beds – an estimated 54 a day – so that more people can be treated and cut costs too.
An overnight stay in a ‘hotel’ will be between $120 and $200 – compared for $1,800 or more for a hospital.
Elderly patients will also be able to be visited by nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals as well as family and friends – a welcome comfort when you are recovering from illness.
If it keeps residents healthier – and happier – then we are all in favour.
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