Whitlam MP Carol Berry, Aged Care Minister Sam Rae and Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes at funding recipient Greenhill Aged Care’s Hillside at Figtree. Photo: Supplied.
Six aged care facilities in the Illawarra will share in nearly $26 million to increase the region’s supply of beds, with hopes the expansion projects and initiatives will improve ongoing challenges in the sector.
Accessing residential aged care could soon be easier for the Illawarra’s older population, with 73 new beds set to become available within the next two years.
“Our region has been experiencing a critical shortage of aged care beds for too long,” Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes said.
“These new beds will help ensure local people can age with dignity and receive quality care, close to home and close to their families.”
“When we looked across the country at the places where we were having the biggest challenges in terms of bringing on new aged care beds, the Illawarra was one of those places that we identified,” Aged Care and Seniors Minister Sam Rae said.
“We want to make sure that every older Australian, no matter where they live and of course here in the Illawarra, can get access to world-class aged care services and that’s what these investments are all about.”
$25.9 million has been announced for expansion and upgrades at existing Illawarra aged care facilities to deliver the much-needed increase.
Warrigal Mt Terry was granted the largest amount of $10 million for its expansion, which will see another 22 beds; Uniting Farmborough received $7.3 million and Hillside at Figtree (Greenhill Aged Care) received $4 million each to increase its bed supply by 20.
Marco Polo Woonona was granted $1.8 million for an expansion and upgrade which will add four new beds, IRT Woonona got $1.5 million to also increase by four beds, with IRT Tarrawanna increasing by three beds with a $1.3 million boost.
“Our ambition has been to bring them on within 24 months,” Minister Rae said.
“Part of why we selected these projects that were already at a point of maturity and they’re all expansion projects with established providers with relationships across the community.
Minister Rae met with aged care residents at Figtree while announcing new funding.
“We’ll be working really closely with local government and state government partners to make sure that we get these beds online as quickly as possible.
“This funding will turn shovel-ready projects into urgently needed aged care places, giving more locals the opportunity to receive quality care in the communities they’ve spent their life building,” Whitlam MP Carol Berry said.
“These additional beds will not only support older residents with complex care and dementia needs, but they will also help ease pressure on families, frontline workers and our local hospitals.”
The limited supply of availability to residential aged care facilities has had a flow-on effect in the region and across the state, with an increasing number of elderly patients stuck in hospitals and taking up much-needed beds when they are unable to return to their homes.
But while the boost may help alleviate some pressure, it will not solve the problem in isolation.
“The issue of delayed discharge of older people in our hospitals is a long-standing issue, it’s a very complex issue and we should be upfront about this – there are no silver bullets to this challenge,” Minister Rae said.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re looking at every option to bring on additional residential aged care as well as make sure that older people can age in place and receive the care and services that they need at home to keep them out of the residential care system for as long as possible.”
The need will continue to climb.
“This year 90,000 Australians will have an 80th birthday,” Minister Rae said.
“Fifteen years ago that was only 15,000 Australians having an 80th birthday, so that’s grown by 600 per cent in 15 years.
“We have a generational public policy challenge on our hands when it comes to meeting the needs of older people in our community.
“We’re up for it, the state governments are up for it, we’re working closely with our NSW counterparts and all other state governments across the country and we’ll continue to do that.”
The funding was awarded as part of the Commonwealth government’s Aged Care Capital Assistance Program (ACCAP), with both state and federal governments launching initiatives and announcing funding this year to address the crises in the aged care and hospital systems.
Original Article published by Keeli Dyson on Region Illawarra.
