Is this the next aged care crisis? With 24,000 ‘phantom’ beds across the system, the real occupancy rate in residential care is closer to 95% – and demand is set to dramatically outstrip supply over the next few years.

With 20% of Australia’s aged care beds located in shared rooms that are mostly operating as singles or lying empty, the residential care system is close to capacity – good news for operators, but bad news for older Australians.

According to the most recent Department of Health and Aged Care data,