Aged care and retirement living operators, plus families, are filling hospitals with people living with dementia. Where to next?

When an ambulance drops a person at a hospital, the responsibility for the care of that person then lies with the hospital staff. The hospital must then decide what to do with that person and find suitable accommodation and care, and with the blessing of family or close friends they can be discharged.

Dementia Support Australia, the referral body for people assessed to be living with dementia, receives most of its referrals from hospitals. That's something it wants to change.

In hospital, not unwell