Queensland has been left short changed by the Commonwealth Government’s announcement of additional aged care funding.
The 2011 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR), which assigns licences to aged care providers to provide residential and community aged care services was announced yesterday by the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler.
“Aged Care Queensland welcomes the additional allocation of 1,571 residential aged care beds across Queensland however we are concerned that a total of 2,300 additional beds were supposed to be allocated as identified by the Government’s own planning formula,” said ACQ CEO Mr Nick Ryan.
“We have been talking to aged care providers since the announcement who are very disappointed that despite years of planning, a strong business case reflective of community needs and a comprehensive application that met all ACAR requirements, they have not been successful in securing government licences to commence operations”.
ACQ is undertaking further analysis at a regional level to determine the impact of the shortfall of 729 residential care places.
The current planning formula used by the Commonwealth Government also resulted in no additional community care places being offered in Queensland in the 2011 round. Mr Ryan said, “Although we understand why this occurred in this round, there is an increasing expectation that older Australians will be able to age at home with the support of community services”. Over 200,000 Queenslanders receive government subsidised community care services each year.
The industry is encouraged by an allocation of an additional 880 Extra Service Status places that allow residential aged care providers to diversify the services they provide.
The need for capital investment is still a challenge with the industry in Queensland seeking just over $85 million in capital grants while only $2.245 million was allocated in this round.
“Aged Care Queensland is awaiting the Government’s response to the proposed reform agenda as outlined in the Productivity Commission Report as it is our view that structural reform is required to deliver a sustainable aged care system”.
Over the next 40 years the number of Australians receiving aged care is projected to increase by around 150% to over 2.5 million people (or almost 8% of the nation’s population) using aged care services by 2050.
“Older Queenslanders have the right to an assurance that services will be available when they need them,” said Mr Ryan.
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