Aged-Care Facilities

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. How are blockages in aged-care facilities impacting the public health system, and what is the Malinauskas Labor government doing in response?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:03): I thank the member for Elder for her question and her significant interest in terms of improving health care for South Australians. This is a significant issue in terms of—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do you wish to leave again?

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: I am in your hands, sir.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: You are in my hands—right. The Minister for Health will be heard uninterrupted.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: As I said, this is a significant issue, and it is one that is growing in importance for our healthcare system and also for older South Australians who need appropriate care in aged care.

At the start of 2023 last year, there were about 100 South Australian elderly people who were stuck in hospital, waiting to get out of hospital and into aged care. They were medically ready for discharge but couldn't get a spot in aged care. That was a significant problem then, but since then we have seen that problem grow and grow to the stage where right now we have 233 South Australians stuck in hospital beds who have been ready to go to aged care but we can't get them into aged care. That is more than the equivalent number of beds of the entire Modbury Hospital.

So that is a representation of that blockage in the system and what it therefore means for other patients who need access to those hospital beds and those acute care facilities. It also means that those patients are stuck in hospital beds a lot longer than they need to be and we know that has a significant impact upon them and their condition as well. There are a multitude of factors going into why we see those blockages occurring.

We have been very clear—both the Premier and I—with, respectively, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, that we need to see further action on this issue, as have other states and territories and other premiers and health ministers around the country as well because this is an emerging problem for all health systems around the country. I think what the federal government have announced recently in terms of their aged-care package—noting with bipartisan support—will help. That is a contributing support in terms of making it more attractive for people to invest in aged-care facilities, but that is not the only element that needs to be there.

There is a whole range of issues in terms of the funding of aged-care facilities, the incentives that are in place, the disincentives and the standards that need to be there in terms of aged-care providers providing care for their community as well as working with us to address that issue of capacity that they have—particularly when it comes to dementia care because, of those 233, 77 in particular are waiting for memory support unit beds. These are people who have severe dementia who need that high level of acuity care but we can't get them access to somewhere.

In response, we are having to address this. We are having to use beds that we have previously moved to The QEH, in the new redevelopment there, and Hampstead, a site that was previously going to be sold off by the previous government. We reversed that sale and we will be using that for many of these patients, so up to 70 of those beds will be used for patients of that cohort who should be in aged-care facilities but will be stuck in our system for a substantial period of time.

The member for Elder was with me, as well as the member for Waite and the member for Davenport, on the weekend at the Repat where we have opened 26 additional beds—an investment from this government to expand the capacity of that service, more than doubling the number of geriatric GEM beds on that site, because we need that extra capacity. Sadly, a lot of those patients will be in that situation where they will be stuck and waiting for those beds elsewhere in the system as well.

We are appreciative that the federal government has made available some funding—we are still waiting for the final details through the National Partnership Agreement process—to enable us to employ additional staff to work with aged-care facilities to give them more comfort in terms of taking some of these high-risk patients out of our hospital system. We are hopeful that that will have some effect, but unless we see a change in the capacity of aged care, this is going to be an escalating problem right around the country. This is one of the key reasons that we have this on the national agenda to raise as part of our health reform negotiations.