Pre-emptive over patch-work – The heated debate over solving the aged crisis needs to think bigger

Pre-emptive over re-active

With several state Health Ministers having openly expressed their frustration at Canberra when it comes to the cross-sector crises plaguing hospitals and aged care, its no wonder Friday’s meeting between Minister Butler and his state contemporaries yielded a slew of comments and reactions. From record hospital ramping figures, state ministers saying 2,500 aged seniors were in hospital when they could be discharged, and the looming boomer influx, the zingers from state to federal, federal to state and of course, to the sector at large showed heightened moods from all. However, when it comes to the solves and pivots needed to actively support senior Australians, and all the sectors they interact with, it seems that re-active is still the order of the day.

Better data needed

State ministers have publicly commented that their belief is that 2,500 aged care patients are the reason behind overcrowded hospitals. A comment that has seen widespread reach and reaction yet at the same time, Ministers are acknowledging that more data and insight is needed. They have agreed to invest in more comprehensive data collection to support their calls for boosted funding and finding new solutions. 

SA’s health minister Picton noted, “So you will be hearing more from us about this data. But Minister Butler, for his part, has agreed to work with us on what urgent actions could happen.” When the figure of 2500 was posed to the Federal minister, Butler noted, “I agree with my state and territory colleagues that we need to see more building in the aged care sector.” From both the figures posed, and response given, both state and federal ministers arguably aren’t going far enough. Experts in the health and aged care spaces have long been calling for greater data on why seniors are admitting to hospital in the first place and what can be done to mitigate that. Same can be said for the response that building beds is the only solve for seniors in hospitals.

Pre-emptive impact of SaH

Multiple aged care leaders, and politicians have been vocal about the need for pre-emptive measures to help ease the strain on the hospital and RAC systems. From Juniper in WA, and Uniting NSW.ACT has seen their leaders vocally call for pivots in government funding and allocation to not just meet the current needs of a crisis that needs solutions, but to lay the foundation for pre-emptive easing of the cohort of boomers entering the phase of life needing aged care, whether at home or RAC. While Minister Butler notes at the beginning of Labor’s coming to Government, “There were huge wait lists for Home Care Packages,” it took a coalition of aged care leadership and senators to push for the recent release of 20,000 packages early.

Speaking to the phasing of home care packages from the government, Green’s Senator Penny Allman-Payne comments highlight the mood from the states, “Labor had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the Greens and others in the Senate just to release 20,000 home care packages. This time, they should take heed of this warning from the states and use today’s meeting to help end the rationing of care so that everyone can access the care that they need.”

Smart, sustainable solves

While government has acknowledged their awareness of the sheer numbers of boomers to skyrocket the demand for aged care, “There is no area of policy where we spent more energy and more money in our first term than aged care.” For all Australians’ sakes that money must be spent smart, and funding models and packages crafted to be sustainable for the long-term.

Butler announced the, “Commonwealth is providing over $1 billion in additional funding in 2025-26 for the residential aged care sector through an increase of the AN-ACC price and hoteling supplement.” However increasing funding for those that are already in RAC does not help mitigate the numbers going into RAC. The perspective of solves must, for the sake of the seniors that need and deserve quality care, and to imbue the sector with sustainable guardrails to continue to provide that care, be pre-emptive in nature and taken seriously by a coalition of brilliant minds from government and the sector.

Thinking bigger

State ministers need to collect data on why senior Australians are presenting to hospitals, what is bringing them to need care, particularly if that is early. The question must be asked, how to keep seniors at home healthier for longer? Multiple aged care leaders and experts have been consistently calling for overhauls to the Support at Home program. Helping seniors stay at home for longer, where they feel safer, to be healthier for longer, not only helps keep the demand on RAC lower, it can have precisely the benefit that ministers are calling for now, preventing seniors in hospital with nowhere to go. As Uniting’s leadership has also noted, providing safe and protected housing for seniors will, too, go a long way to preventing pressures on other sectors.

Through keeping seniors at home longer, healthier longer, the states and federal government may well be able to mitigate the seemingly relentless worsening crisis. At likely now over $2500 per day, hospital care is costing the tax-payer a considerable sum, if pre-emptive measures such as SaH packages were to be made readily and timely available, the SaH program in its pre-emptive results can start to be seen as a much more enticing measure to be used to curve the crises.