Over-65s take up half of treatment days in public hospitals
On any given night in Queensland public hospitals, there are about 300 patients who should be in an aged care facility.
Latest figures reported in The Sunday Mail in Brisbane show that elderly patients (65 or older) used up almost half of the treatment days in the state’s health system last year.
The state government said aged care patients cost the health budget $85 million each year and, if those beds were available, more than 36,000 extra operations could be performed annually.
Aged-care providers said they can no longer afford to provide high-care beds for the elderly since the previous Federal Government legislated against charging bonds for the beds.
In 2007 Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, promised to solve the problem, with 2,000 “transition-care beds” for older Australians waiting in hospital for an aged-care place.
