Strenghthened aged care and community health services

The Government’s  mid-term progress report  includes aged and community care in its list of achievements:

• allocated an additional 1,350 residential aged care beds and over 100 community care places in areas of high need, funded through the first stage of the Government’s $300 million program to provide low cost loans;
• rolling out an additional 2,000 transition care places for older Australians at a cost of $293.2 million over four years;
• increased the Conditional Adjustment Payment in the 2008–09 Budget to deliver an additional $407 million to aged care providers over four years;
• announced an indigenous aged care plan worth more than $46 million;
• providing $6.9 million for incentives to bring nurses back into the aged care workforce;
• iproviding an ongoing increase of $195 million per year to residential aged care providers as a result of increases to the aged pension; and
• provided $2 million over four years to establish an Ambassador for Ageing.