Australia lost $877 million on older patients stuck in hospital in 2022-23. With few new beds and Home Care Packages available and the ageing population increasing, those numbers will only rise. Higher levels of dementia care and palliative care and Hospital in the Home must be the solution.

438,779 hospital days were lost due to elderly Australians waiting for a bed in residential aged care in 2022-23, according to newly released data from the Productivity Commission.

Shockingly, around four in 10 of those people wait more than nine months for a bed.

Our analysis of State Health Department data has found that the numbe