Last week we reported a press article of one man waiting over 600 days in hospital for an aged care bed. This week another article: 455 people are in NSW hospitals waiting for beds today. Check out the Sydney Morning Herald article HERE.
For village operators, this is the tip of the iceberg. As more media coverage emerges that aged care beds are not being built, more people will look to joining a village as a safe harbour in their journey of increasing frailty.
The attraction is that villages provide a village manager that increasingly acts as a guardian to the ageing resident, when no one else is available.
It will also become increasingly known that village operators can’t easily exit a resident.
Villages are not equipped to be semi aged care operators and inevitably services will be criticised, most likely by the family. This will rebound on the public image of the sector.
One proactive step that is essential operators take up is to sign up to the sector’s Code of Conduct. In part it ensures that incoming residents are fully aware of the services that a village offers, in part protecting the operator from criticism. Learn more HERE.
Dementia is another challenge. In today’s press article, Bernie, who had dementia, died in hospital after five months waiting for a bed.
We will be investigating solutions at our LEADERS SUMMIT 18 & 19 March in Sydney, plus presenting how Denmark overcame this problem. There are good lessons to be learnt. Register here.
