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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-25 Daily Xml
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Annie Lockwood Court Hostel

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:45): I rise today to talk about a grave situation in Whyalla when it comes to aged care and the closure of Annie Lockwood. Annie Lockwood is operated by Kindred Living, which also operates Yeltana and Copper House Court in Whyalla. At Annie Lockwood, there are approximately 50 nursing home beds.

The residents of Annie Lockwood and their families were informed that come 27 August Annie Lockwood might well be closed down. It should be added, though, that if suitable accommodation has not been found for the residents, there will be an extension and they will not be moved on. I would encourage all the residents and the families to ensure that they sign nothing and go nowhere until they are more than willing to do so.

A number of people have found suitable accommodation. Some of the accommodation that has been found I think is questionable, but a number of people have found suitable accommodation. The concern that I have is that in a city the size of Whyalla the fact that aged-care residents might have to go to distant communities is deeply disturbing. As a local member, in the past I have been confronted with individuals who have been moved out of Whyalla to find other places, and their families often are very keen to get them back into Whyalla.

That was happening on and off prior to this. Now we are facing the prospect of 50 beds being lost in our community. If something like that happened in the city, in Adelaide, and somebody could not find accommodation in one facility, the overwhelming likelihood is that there would be other accommodation in Adelaide where they could go. But it is not like that in regional communities.

In a community like Whyalla we have one nursing home provider. You can use that technical language: it is a thin market. You have one nursing home provider. It is a small provider. It is a not-for-profit provider. If you cannot get a place there, the overwhelming odds are you are going to have to travel hundreds of kilometres away from your community. The nearest round trip to another nursing home care bed is around about 180 kilometres return, and that is the nearest. Often, Whyalla people are sent much further away than that.

So in a city the size of Whyalla, there should be adequate beds to accommodate those people who need nursing home care. What we see when it comes to nursing home care, and especially in regional communities across Australia, is an absolute train wreck. As of April this year, there were 166 aged-care centres in regional Australia that were at risk of closure. When it came to aged care, 78 per cent of facilities in regional Australia were running at an operating loss. It is a system that has been massively underfunded for years and all the chickens are coming home to roost, notwithstanding the royal commission and the promises of additional money.

There are deep fundamental and systemic issues when it comes to aged care not just in Whyalla but throughout regional Australia. We can talk about it in terms of systemic issues, but what it comes down to is the impact on individuals, the impact on those aged people who are not allowed to age in place and who might have to be moved hundreds of kilometres, the impact on their partners (if they still have a partner) and the stress involved in having to visit distant communities, and the impact on families. This is a totally unacceptable situation. I do not want to see any aged-care residents in Whyalla having to move out from our community.

There are some immediate problems that need to be addressed and one is about accessing enough registered nurses so that we can have an interim solution while the longer term issues are addressed. The longer term issues are around investment in sufficient beds so that people in communities such as Whyalla do not have to leave.

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