Our aged care's in despair

AN AGED care campaigner is calling on council to use one of its own buildings as an aged care facility to address the shortage of nursing homes in Bargara.

Bargara resident Jim Filmer thinks the area is long overdue for a nursing home. Picture: Scottie Simmonds BUNANG

AN AGED care campaigner is calling on Bundaberg Regional Council to use one of its own buildings as an aged care facility to address the shortage of nursing homes in Bargara.

Jim Filmer was a member of the Bargara Nursing Home Steering Committee which tried to encourage the construction of a nursing home in the coastal community.

"It's been three years since the committee reluctantly gave away its cause," he said.

"(Since then) nothing has happened - not a single, solitary idea or proposal."

The council secured funding to build the Kolan Gardens low-care facility in Gin Gin - run by a third party - and Mr Filmer suggested it do the same with the former Burnett Shire building on Hughes Rd.

"It could be turned into a nursing home without having to spend millions and millions of dollars," he said.

"I think that a feasibility study should be carried out to see just how much it would cost to turn it into a nursing home."

Mr Filmer said census statistics from 2009 showed 1500 people lived in Bargara who were aged 65 and over.

"Of those 1500 persons, 165 should be seeking aged care facilities," he said.

But the council's community and arts spokeswoman Judy Peters said it wasn't the council's responsibility to build and manage nursing homes, and Kolan Gardens had been built through funds obtained by the former Kolan Shire Council.

"The Hughes Rd complex houses all the planning and infrastructure staff. It's full to the brim," she said.

Cr Peters said the Department of Health and Ageing had allocated beds to two aged care applications in Bargara.

"Obviously because they haven't been built, I have to wonder if it's economically viable to do so," she said.

Member for Hinkler Paul Neville said some aged care operators felt there was not sufficient profit for them to go ahead with large projects that would cost anywhere between $10-$25 million.

"They get no money until they take in the first resident," he said.

Mr Neville said a report recently released by the Productivity Commission contained the options of charging bonds and having a system of reverse mortgage as a means of making development more secure.

"If all these things were looked into, we might have a new starting point," he said.

Originally published as Our aged care's in despair