Aged Care Canberra: Lack of Residential Aged Care Beds, forces Residents to Stay in Hospital

The Canberra Times has reported elderly patients who are suitable for aged care are being forced to stay in hospitals due to a lack of available residential aged care beds.

The issue came to the forefront of Canberra’s public hospital system when a cancer patient was forced to wait for two days in emergency before being admitted into The Canberra Hospital.

The 72-year-old cancer patient was given a public apology by the Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and the Health Director-General Dr Peggy Brown said there was concern hospital beds were being taken up by people waiting for residential aged care beds.

The Canberra Times quoted Ms Gallagher saying that she is more than happy to apologise to the patient but that there were not many other alternatives for the hospital in that situation.

”This is not ideal, it’s not the way we like people to be treated, but the alternative is kick other people out of their beds to make space and I’m sure there are plenty of people who wouldn’t like to see that happen.”

Dr Brown said that the major redevelopment of a residential aged care facility in the area (Ginninderra Gardens) has lead to a temporary reduction of available beds.

”That’s impacting a bit on the hospital demand because we then can’t get the older people out,” she said. Hospital bed numbers have been rising by 40 extra beds a year maximum, with another 270 planned for the future.

“We’re finding that you can only open a maximum of 40 beds a year and we’ve been doing that… We’ve added 260 beds to the health system and another 270 in the plans but you have to stage those beds, you can’t just open them” said Ms Gallagher.