The Home Care Package Data Report for the March 2023 quarter, which came out last week, reveals there were nearly 250,000 people with a Home Care Package, a 40,000 or 19% increase on the previous year.

In addition, the latest home care data, which is released by the Department of Health and Aged Care, shows nearly another 20,000 people had been assigned a Home Care Package.

The June 2023 quarter data, which was contained in the Department of Health and Aged Care's latest 88-page Sector Performance Report, which also came out last week, shows home care numbers continued to rise strongly. By the end of the June quarter there were 263,000 home care consumers, up 21% over the year. (By contrast, the number of residential aged care consumers rose only 3% over the year to 194,000.)

Bolton Clarke Executive General Manager, Policy and Advocacy, Tim Hicks, wrote on LinkedIn, “Approvals grew substantially this quarter but comparing the first 9 months of FY22 with the first 9 months of FY23 it looks like growth in approvals is about in line with population growth.

“Something to keep an eye on, since future trends in home care demand will be an important factor in long-term sector planning.”

As of 31 March, there were just over 30,000 people waiting for their approved level of home care, about half the nearly 60,000 wait list as of 31 March 2022.

Of those still waiting, more than 24,000 have never been offered a Home Care Package.

Of those waiting for their correct level of home care, 23,000 were approved for a Commonwealth Home Support Package (CHSP). Nearly all (98%) of people waiting for their approved level of care without an interim home care package had CHSP approval.

Wait times are between three and six months for all four Package levels.

The number of home care providers declined by seven over the quarter, from 938 to 931. However, the number of home care providers increased by 15 over the year.

First Nations people accounted for 3% (nearly 8,000) of the nearly 250,000 people with a Home Care Package, which is approximately in line with their presence in the population.

You can read the report here.

The SOURCE: The Royal Commission heard that people were waiting as long as 28 months for a Home Care Package, sometimes longer, and people died while waiting to receive the level of care they were assessed as needing. The fact that the number of people waiting for a Package has halved and wait times have been slashed is good news.