THE Retirement Living Council (RLC) has called on the Australian Government to prioritise urgently needed aged care reforms following the release of new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.

The National Aged Care Data Clearinghouse 2022-23 statistics found that over the past decade the number of admissions to home care has increased by 267 per cent.

Notably over the past 12 months, 25,199 Victorians (21 per cent of national total) accessed home care services, while 38,302 people in NSW (32 per cent) and 30,842 Queenslanders (26 per cent) accessed home care services.

 In the Grampians region, between 2021-22, there were 66 residential care services and outlets, with 96.7 per cent of aged care places in Victoria being classified as residential care, followed by 27 home care services and 60 home support services.

Women aged 85-89 were the most common first admissions into permanent residential care in the Grampians, followed by men in the same age group.

As of June 30, 2023, around 2 in 3 people using aged care services were women, and 58 per cent of people living in permanent residential aged care were aged 85 and over, compared with 40 per cent of people using home care.

This comes at a time when the waitlist to get a home care package has blown out, with more than 68,000 older Australians waiting for assistance.

RLC executive director, Daniel Gannon said these statistics – combined with Australia’s ageing population – should ring alarm bells for the Australian Government.

“In every Australian city, governments are grappling with ambulance ramping, a shortage of hospital beds, an aged care sector bursting at the seams, historic low rental and retirement village vacancies, and unaffordable, red-hot housing markets,” he said.

“This is all conspiring as Australia’s population ages, bringing with it big socio-economic challenges including a 267 per cent increase to home care admissions over a decade.

“While the number of home care admissions has almost quadrupled over the last decade, this might be as good as it gets given the significant demographic changes expected in the coming years.”

In the Grampians region, the leading cause of being discharged from a residential care facility (2021-22) was death, with the average length of stay being 31.6 months, 13.4 months for returning to community, 18.6 months for transport to hospital, 20.5 months for being moved to other residential care and 27.6 for other.

Mr Gannon said Australia’s aged care system has crumbled under the weight of increasing demand, propelled by an ageing population.

“Unfortunately, this year’s federal budget didn’t lay out a long-term plan for Australia’s care challenges, which is plunging the country into a deeper care deficit,” he said.

“While $531 million was allocated to clearing the home care backlog and $1.4 billion to aged care digital infrastructure, these are short-term responses to a problem that is decades in the making.

“This comes at a time when the government still hasn’t responded to the recommendations from the Aged Care Taskforce, having already had almost nine months to consider its recommendations.”

The RLC has developed a new framework – Shared Care – to outline how government can address some of the problems associated with home care funding and delivery while removing transport inefficiencies and costly red tape.

To find out more information about Shared Care, visit bit.ly/461m6Zx