Hospitals overflow as older patients await aged care placements

Hospitals across Australia are filling with older people who no longer need acute medical care but have nowhere else to go. They are well enough to be discharged, yet remain in hospital beds for weeks, months and sometimes more than a year. The reason is simple and deeply troubling. Australia does not have enough aged care beds, disability supports or community services to meet the demand.

The issue is affecting every part of the country, but its impact can be clearly seen through stories like that of George and Petronella Davis in Queensland. Each day George drives 100 kilometres to spend time with his wife, who is occupying a hospital bed despite being medically cleared. Petronella is living with fast progressing dementia and cannot be supported safely at home. Still, the wait for a residential aged care place has stretched into months, with no certainty about when a suitable bed will become available.

Situations like theirs are becoming more common. Queensland alone has more than 1,000 patients stranded in hospital while waiting for aged care or disability accommodation. Some have remained in hospital for between 250 and 400 days. The state government estimates long stay patients are costing the health system 2.5 million dollars each day, money that could instead support emergency departments, elective surgery and chronic care programs.

The Northern Territory faces an even sharper dilemma. About 80 older people are stuck in hospital at any given time, taking up nearly 10 per cent of all public hospital beds in the Territory. Many stay longer than six months. A shortage of residential aged care places, combined with a lack of culturally safe services for Aboriginal people who often require earlier access to care, has created a system under intense strain. Bed block repeatedly drives emergency department overcrowding and contributes to Code Yellow incidents.

Tasmania is grappling with the same challenge. More than 90 people who are medically fit to leave hospital cannot do so because there is no aged care vacancy or appropriate NDIS support plan ready for them. Some have remained in hospital for almost six months. The cost to the state over the past year has exceeded 70 million dollars, squeezing hospitals already struggling with high demand and workforce shortages.

Frontline staff say they have never seen placement delays this severe. Nurses, discharge planners and social workers are spending hours contacting facilities across their regions, often with little success. One Brisbane nurse said she contacted 176 aged care homes for a single patient and still had no placement. Some facilities have closed their waiting lists entirely because they cannot safely take more residents. Others are admitting only people who can pay larger accommodation deposits, leaving older Australians on lower incomes with virtually no options.

Families are being stretched to breaking point. Many are told their loved ones may stay in hospital indefinitely. Others are being offered beds hours away from where they live, forcing them to choose between accepting an unsuitable placement or letting a parent remain in hospital far longer than necessary.

This crisis has been years in the making. Australia’s population is ageing, and rates of dementia and complex medical needs continue to rise. Yet the number of aged care beds has barely increased. Only 578 new beds were added nationally last year, despite the system needing more than 10,000 annually to keep up with demand. Providers warn they are unable to expand because of financial pressures, workforce shortages and the significant investment required to improve standards following the royal commission.

The aged care funding model is also shaping who gets a bed. Some providers are prioritising residents who attract higher subsidies, which can disadvantage people with dementia, behavioural symptoms or fewer financial resources. At the same time, long delays in NDIS plans and approvals are leaving younger people with disability stuck in hospital for months on end.

State and territory governments have been calling on the Commonwealth to take stronger action to increase aged care capacity. Leaders from Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory argue that hospital systems cannot keep absorbing the cost of long stay patients. They want more federal investment, incentives to build new facilities and faster assessment pathways for people with high needs.

The federal government has highlighted funding commitments and ongoing negotiations about broader health and NDIS reforms. Even so, health experts warn that current measures fall well short of what is needed. Some argue that increasing the federal share of hospital funding to 45 per cent will still not meet rising demand across states.

For families like the Davises, policy debates offer little comfort. George simply wants a safe and appropriate place for his wife to live. Thousands of families across the country feel the same. No one wants their parent or partner to spend their final months or years in a hospital ward because the aged care sector cannot take them.

What Australia is facing is not only a capacity problem but an ethical one. Older people who have contributed to their communities deserve timely, compassionate support and a care system that works.

Until aged care services expand, until workforce shortages ease, and until discharge pathways are properly rebuilt, seniors will keep being stranded in hospitals. Their families will continue to shoulder the emotional cost, and health systems will remain under severe pressure.