12,000 elderly die while waiting for Home Care
Almost 12,000 elderly Australians died last year while waiting for the help they needed to remain in their homes, new government figures reveal.
NSW
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More than 230 older Australians die each week while waiting for government-funded help to stay in their homes.
New government figures, secretly released last week, reveal 11,987 older Australians died while waiting for in-home care packages in 2018-19.
While the number of people dying before they were offered home help has dropped from 16,000 in 2017-18, more older Australians waiting for that type of assistance were forced into aged care facilities.
About 18,000 were forced into a nursing home in 2018-19 — a 40 per cent jump.
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Under pressure to deal with the ageing population, the Coalition has increased the number of home care packages from 60,308 in 2012–13 to 124,032 in 2018–19.
Despite the boost, more than 110,000 older people are still waiting up to 12 months to receive the package they have been approved for.
During the year to September, almost 50,000 people on the waiting list were offered interim support at a lower level than they were approved to get, in a bid to try to help them stay in their own homes.
But more than 18,000 older residents in NSW had not been offered any in-home care while languishing on waiting lists for aged care services.
Last year the royal commission into aged care labelled the system “sad and shocking”.
It called for immediate action to support more older Australians to stay at home.
The probe has prompted the Morrison government to pump an $2.7 billion in additional funding into the sector since April.
This includes an extra 10,000 home care packages announced in November.
But Labor’s aged care spokeswoman Julie Collins described the latest figures as “shameful” and accused the government of announcing “stopgap measures” instead of properly fixing the issue.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said recent funding boosts were aimed at reducing wait times, and said the number of people waiting for a home care package had fallen 11 per cent in 12 months.