New aged care places set Government up for election

Thousands of new aged care places across Australia have been announced by the new Minister for Ageing, Christopher Pyne. They will form the basis of the Government’s election campaign for the ageing vote.

“More than 32,000 new places will be provided over the next three years to help meet the needs of older Australians seeking fair and affordable access to high-quality aged-care services,” Mr Pyne said. “Once operational, these places are worth $1 billion a year in Australian Government funding.”

“A total of 10,734 places will be made available for allocation in 2007-08 through the 2007 Aged Care Approvals Round. These have an estimated annual recurrent funding value of more than $330 million.

“I expect that up to two-thirds of the more than 6,800 new residential places made available in the 2007 Round will be allocated as high-care places,” Mr Pyne said. “Of course, this will depend on the department receiving quality applications for high care places.”

Applications for new places and capital grants for 2007-08 are to be invited on 14 April. The closing date for applications for community care places will be mid to late May, while the closing date for residential places and capital grants will be early June.

Retirement village operators are encouraged to apply for community aged care places for their residents in the 2007 Aged Care Approvals Round, if necessary in partnership with organisations already providing such care. Operators will need to show that the village environment permits ageing-in-place, that continuity and quality of care are assured, and indicate what other benefits they can make available to residents.

“It’s been demonstrated through a pilot program that providing community aged care to people living in retirement villages can help them to remain in their community, rather than having to move into residential aged care. This is the sort of choice that older Australians want