Aged care is in crisis. There is no news on the Government's response to the Aged Care Taskforce recommendations; the highly contentious, incomplete and delayed new Aged Care Act is due to start on 1 July 2025; there are not enough Registered Nurses to meet the existing care minutes and from 1 October 2024 care minutes increase to 215 minutes per resident per day, including 44 minutes of direct care by an Registered Nurse.
The residential aged care sector has had operating losses for the past four financial years with a further loss likely for FY24, according to StewartBrown. In May this year, there were more than 68,000 older Australians waiting for a Home Care Package at their assessed level of need and the wait time is 12 months for the vital Level 3 packages. The new Support at Home program is due to come in on 1 July 2025.
congratulates athletes at Admiralty House.
Aged care is the Government’s fourth largest expense at an estimated $36.2 billion in 2024-25 and rising as a percentage of gross domestic product as Australia's population ages.
Minister for Aged Care and Sport Anika Wells should be representing Australia at the Olympic Games from 26 July. She is also the Federal Member for Lilley, in Brisbane, the city hosting the Games in 2032.
Surely, it's time the issues affecting the sector require a Minister for Aged Care. Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Anne Ruston told the National Retirement Living Summit that if elected, she wanted to be Minister for Ageing.
"We are about to face a tsunami of demand because we know that there is an ageing population coming into the ranks of requiring aged care assistance, and recent data is actually quite terrifying, in terms of how long people are waiting to access home care packages," Senator Ruston said.
With the reform of aged care, the cost of aged care and the ageing population, as the Labor Party under Gough Whitlam said during the 1972 federal election, it's time.
Time for a Minister for Aged Care to avert the crisis.