Labor promise to improve hospital-nursing home link
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by DPS
Federal Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, says he will improve the link between hospitals and nursing homes, thereby saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr Rudd says that working with the states and territories for reform would be a priority area for a Labor government.
“There are currently an estimated 2,000 older Australians who have been assessed for residential aged care waiting in hospital wards,” he said during a visit to a Brisbane nursing home.
He said the average daily cost of a hospital bed was $967 – almost nine times higher than the cost of a residential aged care place.
“In a year, the cost to the health system of leaving 2,000 older Australians waiting for a nursing home bed in a hospital each night is around $700.”
