Elderly Territorians living in hospitals for SIX months with nowhere else to go
Eighty elderly Territorians are trapped in hospital beds for over half a year due to a critical shortage of aged care spaces occupying a tenth of the NT’s hospital bed stock. Read the details.
Thousands of Australians are languishing in public hospitals for up to a year despite being medically fit for discharge due to a nationwide aged-care and disability placement bed shortage.
New figures reveal 3704 long-stay patients are currently stranded in state-run hospitals while waiting for aged-care beds or NDIS-supported accommodation, a crisis now draining more than $2.34bn a year from state health budgets.
Premiers and Chief Ministers say the costs created by these blocked beds, ranging anywhere from $194,000 a day in Tasmania to $2.5m a day in Queensland, has pushed hospital systems to breaking point.
Long-term aged care patients are being left to languish in Territorian hospitals beds for more than six months every year due to lack of bed spaces in residential homes.
The number of long-stay older patients in Territory hospitals has doubled in the past five years with more than 80 patients occupying beds on any given day – 10 per cent of the Territory’s bed stock.
According to NT Health Minister, Steve Edgington, this is costing taxpayers $40 million a year and taking up needed beds in an already strained system.
As the demand for residential aged care services has increased across the country, the number of available beds in tailored facilities has not.
A report revealed this week the number of aged care beds increased by only 578 in the past year across Australia. The annual target to meet expected demand is 10,600 beds.
In the Territory, NT Health said in 2024 it had 47.6 aged care beds per 1000 people aged 70 years and over, compared to the national average of 67.5 beds.
This equates to a shortfall of about 304 beds.
When Aboriginal patients aged 50 years and over were included, the rate was 26.3 per 1000 compared to the national average of 64.5.
Although preparations for a 120-bed facility are under way in the Top End, the NT Government argues the move from the federal government has not come soon enough.
Especially as the chronic underfunding of health services and the failure to act sooner is now contributing to hospital bed blocks and leading to a system in crisis.
In October this year, NT Health said there were 83 long-stay older patients in Territory hospitals who had been assessed as eligible for residential aged care.
This is double the amount of patients on wards in October, 2020.
The 83 patients had an average hospital length of stay of 191 days each costing about $1500 per day – depending on individual needs and circumstances.
Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, said these situations let valued Territorians down.
“Labor’s continued failure to address the desperate need for aged care beds means that on any given day up to 80 senior Territorians are in hospital instead of dignified care they deserve in their later stages of life,” she said.
“This is profoundly disrespectful to people who have contributed to this country over their lifetime and leaves families to make difficult decisions like leaving the Territory.”
The NT Government has stated previously the hospitals in the Territory are “chronically underfunded” by federal government with the health system sitting seven per cent behind the national average.
Ms Finocchiaro called for the “blatant inequity” to be remedied by lifting the national average as part of the National Health Reform Agreement and saying the long-stay patient situation has become beyond manageable.
“The Federal Government needs to explain why up to 80 senior Territorians are being left to live the rest of their life in hospital instead of dignified care which exacerbates the pressure for beds on our hospital system that is chronically underfunded well below the national average,” she said.
“The CLP Government is plugging the gap, but this is beyond what is manageable – the federal government needs to step up.”
A long-stay patient in the NT is defined by age, medical criteria and if there are barriers to discharges.
NT Health said patients had to be over 50 years old and over for Aboriginal inpatients or 65 years and over for non-Indigenous patients, medically ready for discharge and maintenance care but assessed as eligible for permanent residential aged care and are unable to be safely discharged without safe care in place.
In June 2024, the NT had the highest aged care occupancy rate at 92.2 per cent and the longest hospital stays for patients awaiting aged care placement.
Mr Edgington said getting the new aged care facility up and running should help ease pressure on hospitals.
“This ‘bed block’ ripples through the system, causing longer waits in our emergency departments and putting pressure on care for everyone,” he said.
“Also, it means aged care patients are not getting appropriate care as they should be in aged care.”
Mr Edgington said the $60m from federal government towards the new facility was promised in this year’s federal election but this failed in the grant process in September.
While the federal government has just locked in an expression of interest, Mr Edgington said it was “not good enough”.
Labor’s Solomon MP Luke Gosling told parliament last month more older Australians in Darwin would be able to access “the world-class residential aged care they deserve”.
“This new home will help reduce the number of older Territorians experiencing delayed discharge from our hospitals,” he said.
“It will give more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders access to culturally safe care that allows them to stay close to their families and Country as well those people with complex and higher care needs.”
Mr Gosling said he expected construction to begin in the Dry Season next year, and that part of the EOI review process would looking at applicants’ ability to deliver the building on time.
In September the federal government announced almost $40m for the NT in its latest aged care grant round, for projects all outside of Darwin and Palmerston.
An NT Health spokeswoman said the health body works with residential aged care homes to continuously monitor capacity and support patients being transferred.
“On any given day, there are about 80 long-stay older patients living in NT hospitals because there are no beds available in residential aged care.
“This represents 10 per cent of all our hospital bed stock and can cause bed block by reducing the availability of inpatient beds, leading to increased emergency wait times and demand pressures.
“On average, NT Health facilitates the transfer of about two older people into residential aged care per week.”
For further information about aged care services, click here.
