“No” to Port Lincoln home funds request

Matthew Flinders Home has asked the Port Lincoln City Council in

South Australia for support to fund a $5.5 million upgrade to provide 10 new rooms, but the council wants the aged care home to look elsewhere for funding, according to a report in the Port Lincoln Times.

The six stage project, including new rooms and converting two-bed rooms to single accommodation, is expected to cost $5.5 million, with the first stage to cost $2.2 million, and the home has asked ratepayers to fund 60% of the first stage.

The home approached the council for a $1.2 million grant over two years, but the council has declined it at this stage, deciding instead to continue discussions with the home and look at an overarching review of aged care in Port Lincoln and
Lower Eyre Peninsula.

The review would look at the current and future needs for aged care and the potential for consolidation of aged care services.

Council chief executive officer, Geoff Dodd, said aged care was not identified as a core responsibility in the council’s 10-year strategic plan and the council would need to reprioritise the plan to grant $1.2 million to the home.

Mr Dodd said the council would have to significantly reduce its works program or increase rates to fund the grant, and committing funding to the first stage could tie the council to the project until it was finished.

“What happens when they come back and want another million in two years and another million two years after that?”

The home would contribute $600,000 toward the first stage and raise a further $400,000 over the 18 months of the project.

Mr Dodd said he had been told Federal Governent funding was unlikely, due to previous grant allocations and the adequate provision of high care beds and services on Lower Eyre Peninsula, but he said low interest Federal loans were available for this sort of refurbishment project.

If the upgrade does not go ahead Mr Dodd said different management options may have to be considered for the home such as amalgamation with other service providers or a takeover by corporate aged care providers.

The council will ask for more information from the home about its capacity to service a long-term Federal Government loan and support investigation of other funding sources