Trapped on a lonely bed: The human face of the states’ funding fight with federal government
A brother with dementia trapped in hospital exemplifies an extraordinary political fight that could determine whether patients live or die while waiting for care.
When Brenda Gillett’s brother Trevor Deem began to slip into the grips of dementia, there was never any question over whether she would care for him – she knew he would have done the same for her.
But now Mr Deem has become trapped, languishing on a lonely bed in Coledale Hospital while waiting for a place in an aged care home.
The 66-year-old former labourer is one of thousands across NSW suffering in hospital beds when they should be on an NDIS placement or in an aged care home.
It is this situation that has sparked an extraordinary fight between the states and the federal government, with the states calling on the feds to cough up more money to give these patients NDIS packages and aged care beds – a fight first exposed in The Saturday Telegraph’s Sick Of Waiting campaign.
“He’ll probably die in there, that’s the horrible truth,” Mrs Gillett, 67, of Dapto, said. “It upsets me a lot, I’m watching him decline more and more, it’s like he’s on a slippery dip, and he forgets my name. He had a wicked sense of humour, he was really quick witted and would make me laugh.
“But if it was me, Trevor would do the same for me. He and I were always close, we’ve always been close. If push came to shove, he would look after me – I do it because nobody else will. If I don’t do it, he’d be dead now.”
In 2023, the national cabinet – a meeting of leaders from the federal, state and territory governments – agreed the federal government would boost its hospital funding share to 42.5 per cent by the end of this decade, and to 45 per cent by 2025.
But since then this unity has deteriorated and the states are now accusing the Commonwealth of trying to walk this deal back.
In an escalation of the stoush, the state premiers last week released a rare joint letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urging him to honour the 2023 deal, claiming thousands of patients waiting on NDIS places and aged care beds will remain stranded in hospital beds unless the funding problem is fixed.
In NSW, there are more than 1100 people languishing in beds, just like Mr Deem.
Macquarie St insiders said the letter was a rare collaboration between the state and territory leaders. And this teamwork may have something to do with what is on the political horizon for leaders such as Premier Chris Minns.
In our state, an election is due in March 2027, which may seem far away to us but is already well in the minds of politicians and advisers.
In focus groups and polls, health consistently rates in the top three issues for voters when asked what they will be voting on.
In effect, the Minns government is positioning itself to suggest NDIS placements and aged care beds are a federal government responsibility, and there is nothing NSW can do.
Secondly, it is costing taxpayer dollars to house these patients such as Mr Deem in hospital beds, and the Minns government does not have a cent to spare – it is saying if it has to look after these patients, it needs more money.
When asked about future healthcare for her brother, Mrs Gillett is not hopeful the governments will come to an agreement.
“From what I can see, they’re not going to do a goddamn thing. It doesn’t affect them until they walk a mile in one of our shoes, then they can really know what’s going on, but they don’t care, or they would have fixed the problem ages ago,” she said
“If the (federal Health) Minister (Mark Butler) came out, I’d tell him to get off his bloody damn arse and do something about this – people are dying before they get into nursing homes.”
Mrs Gillett said medical staff are not to blame for systemic failures but the federal government and NDIS have a “lot to answer for”.
“It’s about time the government started stepping up, because the amount of people that are waiting to get into nursing homes is a joke.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said: “The impact of the Commonwealth’s bed block is felt right across the hospital system – from wards, to surgeries that can’t be conducted, to people waiting for beds in the emergency department”.
“The failure of the Commonwealth to deliver on its promise for more aged care and NDIS placements means patients in hospitals throughout NSW are deprived of beds,” he said.
At a press conference on November 18, Mr Albanese claimed his government was making the biggest aged care reforms this century.
“We made a range of commitments and we’ve been rolling them out,” he said. “We said we’d put nurses back in the nursing homes, they’re in nursing homes 99 per cent of the time, we’re providing substantial wage increases for aged care workers.”
Mr Butler said: “The Commonwealth remains committed to the December 2023 national cabinet deal and we are committed to making a fair contribution under the hospital funding agreement to give Australians better access to health services they need. The Commonwealth has increased its funding to the NSW hospital system by 11 per cent in this financial year, this is an additional $985 million”.
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Originally published as Trapped on a lonely bed: The human face of the states’ funding fight with federal government
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