It would take two large aged care homes to house all the older patients in South Australian hospitals ready to be discharged, but with no bed available.
The Malinauskas Government's promise to build more than 600 new hospital beds, including 300 this year, has seen ambulance ramping drop 41% in September to 3,106 hours, the largest improvement recorded in the state, and the lowest level in a year.
South Australia Minister for Health and Wellbeing
SA Minister for Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton MP says "there’s still more work to do".
"We need to make sure patients can get out of hospital when they need to – and sadly right now there are more than 200 elderly patients stuck in hospital waiting for a Federal Government aged care bed."
In May, the Federal and South Australian State Government pledged $56.3 million to free aged care bed blockages, including:
- $42.9 million for “geriatric flying squads” which provides hospital staff to help older patients transition into residential aged care,
- $4.6 million to extend the Acute to Residential Care Transition Program to support people with behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, and
- $2.1 million to help older people recover from a hospital stay with short-term care through the extended Transition Care Programme.
