New Govt announces new aged care beds and promises more

A total of 6,525 new residential aged care beds worth $233.3 million a year in recurrent funding will be allocated across Australia ,the Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, has announced.

She also said capital grants of $40.5 million would be allocated to assist aged care providers build or improve residential aged care services.

Of the 6,525 places allocated, there are 4,415 high care and 2,110 low care places.

The new places are part of the 2007 Aged Care Approvals Round – an annual competitive assessment process that allocates new aged care places to providers who best demonstrate they can meet the needs of the ageing population within a specified region.

This process was commenced under the former Howard Government. Decisions on aged care places are made independently by the Department of Health and Ageing.

“While 6,525 new places is good news, more beds are needed,” Mrs Elliot said.

The outcomes of the 2007 Aged Care Approvals Round show that not enough providers are applying to set up aged care services in some of the undersupplied areas of Australia. The Government has committed to fill these gaps.

“One of the Rudd Government’s election commitments was to make available $300 million in zero real interest rate loans to providers who are willing to establish aged care services in undersupplied areas. I will be making further announcements about this soon,” Mrs Elliot said.

“To complement the new loans scheme, the Government will also reform the existing aged care planning and allocation arrangements to ensure the time between the allocation of new places and when they become operational is reduced to a minimum.

“In particular, the annual allocation process will be made more efficient and the planning ratio, which is used to determine how many places are made available each year, will be reviewed,” she said.

Details of the allocations can be found on the Department of Health and Ageing website at www.health.gov.au/acar2007