The accommodation supplement is about $70 per resident, per day. The problem is it costs around $165 per resident per day to build and maintain an aged care bed.
As CEO of Juniper Aged Care, I’m deeply concerned by new figures showing more than 3000 older Australians are currently stuck in hospital beds across the country because there is nowhere else for them to go.
While state and territory health ministers have rejected the federal government’s latest public hospital funding offer, this issue goes well beyond a funding disagreement between governments.
At its core is an aged care supply crisis that has been building for many years.
Federal health minister Mark Butler is right to say Australia does not have enough aged care facilities, particularly as baby boomers begin turning 80 – the age at which demand for residential aged care increases sharply.
However, placing responsibility on providers to build more beds is unrealistic under the current funding model.
At Juniper, around half of our residents fall below the means-testing threshold and cannot afford to pay a refundable accommodation deposit. In those cases, the Commonwealth pays an accommodation supplement on their behalf.
That contribution is currently about $70 per resident per day.
The problem is, it costs around $165 per resident per day to build and maintain an aged care bed. That leaves a funding gap of roughly $95 per day – a shortfall that makes it impossible to stack up a viable business case to build new facilities.
The accommodation supplement has not been adjusted in real terms for almost a decade, despite soaring construction, workforce and compliance costs, and we are all feeling the strain.
In Perth, Juniper operates around 800 aged care beds. On any given day, we might have only 10 to 12 beds vacant, often for no more than two or three days.
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I have never seen demand like this in my time in the aged care sector. Across WA, the system is estimated to be around 3000 beds undersupplied. That undersupply has been well known by the Commonwealth and state government for the last 10 years.
When older Australians who are medically ready to leave hospital cannot access aged care, hospitals remain gridlocked, patients experience longer waits and poorer outcomes, and families are left under enormous stress.
Without urgent action, this pressure will intensify as the number of Australians over 80 continues to rise.
If governments genuinely want more aged care beds built, the solution is clear. We need federal funding settings that reflect the real cost of delivering aged care. That means updating the accommodation supplement, exploring low-cost loan arrangements, grants or co-investment models, and providing long-term certainty so providers can plan and invest with confidence.
Juniper wants to be part of the solution.
We are ready to grow and support older Australians with the care and dignity they deserve. But without meaningful reform to aged care funding, this crisis will only deepen – and hospitals, patients and families will continue to pay the price.
Russell Bricknell is CEO of Juniper Aged Care.
This article was first published on Mr Bricknell’s LinkedIn feed. Read the original here.