Aged Care Act deferral adds to the pressure on services
The recent announcement of the full deferral of the new Aged Care Act was not a huge surprise to the industry.
However it is disappointing for all.
The new date for the commencement of the new Aged Care Act is now November 1.
The deferral has been suggested as allowing providers more time to prepare for the new Act.
However, the simple reality is that providers were as ready as they could be.
The hold-up was more accurately that the Government still had not (and has not) finalised all the underlying rules supporting the new Aged Care Act, which needs to be resolved and clearly communicated so as the industry can finalise systems and processes on their side.
Significant changes to key fundamentals such as our software, our internal systems, policies and processes and even our contracts with clients and residents cannot be completed until the Government finalises all aspects of the relevant legislation.
Unfortunately, this deferral also means that the structural funding changes have been deferred, along with the deferral of some 80,000 community care packages.
When we have a scenario that elders in the community cannot even get access to a Community Care package (with a current waiting list of about 100,000 nationally), this places them at risk of unnecessary hospitalisation or early admission into residential aged care.
As I have written previously, our industry is already essentially at capacity within residential aged care nationally.
We are already seeing elders stuck in hospitals waiting extended periods for a place in Residential Aged Care.
There are next to no new development of new facilities being built.
This will not change until funding for the industry improves.
And now we see further delays on the provision of much needed Community Care packages.
This deferral of the new Aged Care Act, while allowing more time for Government to complete the underlying rulesets and provide clarity to our industry, will also have the impact of significant additional pressure on existing services for an industry already falling short of being able to deliver to our ageing population.
As our Baby Boomer cohort starts to turn 80 from next year onwards for the next 20-odd years, we will see ever increasing numbers of elders in our community requiring support.
As it currently stands, we will fall a long way short of being able to respond to this nationally.
On a local level, our hospitals are already feeling the burden, with over 100 beds occupied on the Central Coast at any given time of elders waiting to get access to a residential aged Care bed.
Further afield, other hospitals are having to resort to more extreme measures to try and deal with the issue.
In Adelaide, the public hospital has now taken over several floors of a local hotel, establishing those as "wings" to accommodate elders waiting to get access to a residential aged care bed.
Unfortunately, until the underlying issue of addressing the long-term viability of the industry is addressed, there will continue to be a lack of growth and development in the industry.
It is not inconceivable that within a few years, we will see the majority of hospital beds in our public hospitals filled with elders waiting to get access to residential aged care, or even simply unable to return home until they can access appropriate in home community care support.
This should be a concern for all Australians.
SOURCE:
Newsletter, 1 Jul 2025
Matt Downie, Blue Wave Living