Govt promises $158m for transition beds for appropriate aged care

The Australian Government is working on its election commitment to get 2,000 older Australians who are occupying hospital beds into appropriate aged care – freeing up valuable hospital resources for those needing urgent treatment, the Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot said.

“This is about getting older Australians into the care they need rather than a hospital,” she said.

She compared the Productivity Commission’s calculation for the average cost of a hospital bed – $1,117 a day – with the average cost of an aged care bed which was about $100 a day.

“It costs almost 11 times as much to provide a hospital bed than it does to provide an aged care place.”

Mrs Elliot said she was working with Federal Health Minister, Ms Nicola Roxon, to implement the election commitment through COAG (Council of Australian Governments), which was to discuss this issue at its meeting on 26 March.

Mrs Elliot repeated the Rudd Government’s election promise to provide $158 million over three years to state and territories for 2,000 transition care beds for older Australians who are currently waiting in hospital beds for an aged care bed and allow others to return to their home.

She said that in August 2006, there were about 2,300 older people in public hospitals who should have been in an aged care facility.

It would have cost $83 million a year if sufficient aged care services had been provided rather than $937 million a year for the hospital costs.