$250m aged care plan to create capacity for urgent care
A new $250 million zero-interest loan scheme to deliver an extra 650 aged care beds for older South Australians will open to applicants next week – in a move that will free up hospital capacity and acute beds within the public health system.
Demand for residential aged care is projected to grow significantly over the next 20 years, with an estimated 10,600 additional residents anticipated nationally each year.
This is expected to be even more pronounced in South Australia, which has the highest proportion of people aged over 85 in the nation.
While the provision of aged care beds falls under the Federal jurisdiction - with state jurisdictions nationwide continuing to advocate to the Commonwealth for additional investment - the Malinauskas Government has determined it cannot simply sit back while the additional capacity we have built in South Australia is increasingly utilised by aged care patients.
Under our plan, no-interest loans will be open to aged care providers to build additional aged care facilities, delivering more desperately needed residential aged care beds for older South Australians.
Individual loans of up to $50 million per application will support capital investment in the development, refurbishment and expansion of aged care infrastructure to increase the number of aged care beds for older South Australians needing residential aged care.
The Loan Scheme will prioritise projects that:
• increase access to beds for fully supported residents
• increase the supply of memory support beds
• address areas of residential aged care under-supply, and
• can be fast-tracked with new beds made operational quickly.
Construction must begin within 12 months with new aged care beds to be operational within 48 months of the loan agreement, with operators to enter into long-term agreements to make beds available for government priorities, including supporting discharge from hospitals and to prevent avoidable admissions to hospitalrelated to lack of access to residential aged care.
It comes as Labor honours another election commitment to ease pressure on the health system, with 50-step-down beds now open and operating at College Grove in Walkerville, providing immediate care for patients who no longer require an acute hospital bed.
The Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) partnership ensures more South Australians receive the right care in the right place while improving hospital patient flow and easing pressure on emergency departments.
The site opened with 10 beds in April this year, with the remaining 40 progressively established since then. The additional beds which include eight memory support beds, are based at the Walkerville facility as part of CALHN’s Transition Care Service, delivered in collaboration with Amplar Health.
The service provides immediate 24-hour care for patients who no longer need to remain in hospital yet require ongoing and appropriate support while they wait transition to their next place of care or return home.
This is on top of the existing action we’ve taken to address the aged care shortage including the 48-bed Transition Care at the Pullman, essential infrastructure pathway with the sponsorship of two aged care developments, and a further 70-beds at Hampstead for complex older patients.
And importantly – it frees up hospital beds.
Quotes
Attributable to Peter Malinauskas
While the provision of new aged care beds is not a State Government responsibility, we don’t want to look back in years to come and simply blame the Commonwealth for not doing enough when we had the opportunity to act.
The fact is, we have made record investments into our public health system – but we are not maximising the benefits of that effort because more and more hospital facilities are being taken up by aged care patients with no dedicated aged care beds to transfer to.
We don’t have time to wait – we are going to the market to incentivise immediate new investment. Because older South Australians deserve better than languishing in a hospital bed when what they really need is an aged care bed.
And solving this crisis will mean more urgent care beds for people who need them.
Attributable to Tom Koutsantonis
This new $250 million no-interest loan program will incentivise an immediate construction pipeline of up to 650 new aged care beds across South Australia.
A registered provider can apply for multiple projects up to a total loan value of $50 million, with the scheme to be administered by the SA Government Financing Authority.
During the construction period, a repayment-free period will apply for a maximum of 48 months from the first drawdown, which means the beds will already be constructed, up and running before repayments are required.
Attributable to Blair Boyer
As of August, there were 466 patients in South Australian metropolitan public hospitals, and other SA Health services awaiting placement in a residential aged care home.
Of these, 124 were waiting for dementia specific care. That 446-patient total is up from just 60 in 2022 – which shows that more federal investment is needed.
And in light that, across Australia an additional 10,000 aged care beds each year will be needed to meet future demand.
But we are doing what we can – by creating the incentive for private investment in aged care facilities, that will take pressure off our health system sooner rather than later