Hearings for the Senate Inquiry into the Aged Care Bill 2024 wrapped up last week, with Grant Corderoy, Senior Partner of aged care accountants StewartBrown, among the final speakers.

Grant told Senators that residential aged care needs to make better returns on accommodation to build the approximately 40,000 beds needed over the next five years. He said the 2% RAD retention and increase in the RAD cap to $750,000 will help to achieve that outcome.

The average cost of an aged care bed, including a surplus for refurbishment or replacement, is about $120 per resident per day, Grant said, and he would like to see this "rental" figure quoted to make it easier for people to understand. During hearings, witnesses were repeatedly asked how much it cost to operate an aged care bed but it proved a difficult question for them to answer.

The Senate Inquiry, which has been chaired by South Australian ALP Senator Marielle Smith, is also now closed to submissions, with 181 published on the Senate Inquiry's website and available to the public at the time of publication.

The Senate Inquiry's report is due out on Thursday, and expected to be published online at about 5pm, once it has passed through the chamber. 

Debate on the Bill and the report is then likely to begin next sitting week, which begins on 4 November.

The Health and Aged Care portfolio is due to appear before Supplementary Budget Estimates on 7 November. You can follow here.

At last week's Ageing Australia National Conference (previously the Aged and Community Care Providers Association), Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said the Bill needed to be passed before the end of the year for the sector to remain financially viable. The House of Representatives has only 12 sitting days remaining to meet the deadline.