According to the annual report on aged care services from the Government’s main review and advisory body, the median wait time for a Level 1 HCP is now around seven months, 15 months for a Level 2, 30 months for a Level 3 and up to 34 months for a Level 4.
There are currently about 112,000 people on the national home care prioritisation queue – a decline from the high of 130,000 in mid-2019, but a sign that supply is still not meeting demand.
Total government expenditure reported on aged care services in 2018-19 was $20.1 billion. This comprised expenditure of $13.2 billion on residential care services, $5.9 billion on home care and support services and $1.0 billion on other services, such as flexible care and assessments.
As at June 2019, there were 213,397 operational places (excluding flexible places) in residential care services, and 106,707 recipients of Home Care Packages Level 1–4.
Residential aged care waiting times are also blowing out, the data shows.
The median “elapsed time” between getting approval from an ACAT and entering an aged care home was 152 days in 2018-19 – up from 121 days in 2017-18 and 105 days in 2016-17.
However, with residential occupancy at its lowest point for 10 years – at 89.4% – is it reluctance from families to make the final commitment to residential care – and the Royal Commission – and delays in selling the family home that is slowing the numbers rather than the system itself?
One thing is clear from the report – there is still a lot of need out there. In 2018, 34% of older people living at home in need of assistance reported that their needs were not being met.
Discussion1 Comment
Quite clearly there is a huge problem with assessments for home care. Anyone waiting three years for a level 4 absolutely didn’t need that level of care in the first place.
A level 4 package may enable a quite chronic person a few more months at home before entering a nursing home.
The whole home care system is a disgrace, over spending from the government on a system that is rorted endlessly and actual care delivery is a joke. What’s worse is that it’s an unsupervised joke. Just like NDIS. Absolutely no value for money.