Zero-interest loans promised to fix SA’s aged care bed block
More aged care beds for older South Australians have been promised by the state government.
A $250 million loan scheme will open to aged care providers next week to speed up access to aged care beds, Premier Peter Malinauskas announced today.
Malinauskas, Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis and Health Minister Blair Boyer fronted media at Amplar Health’s College Grove Walkerville aged care home on Tuesday morning to reveal the scheme’s details.
Zero-interest loans of up to $50 million per application will be available to aged care providers, with Malinauskas saying the state “doesn’t have time to wait” for the federal government to fix the bed block.
“While the provision of new aged care beds is not a state government responsibility, we don’t want to look back in years to come and simply blame the Commonwealth for not doing enough when we had the opportunity to act,” Malinauskas said.
“The fact is, we have made record investments into our public health system – but we are not maximising the benefits of that effort because more and more hospital facilities are being taken up by aged care patients with no dedicated aged care beds to transfer to.”
The scheme was an election promise from the Malinauskas government in March, and was welcomed by advocacy group Ageing Australia.
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The latest ramping figures, released on Friday, showed ambulances spent about 5434 hours on the ramp, a 13.9 per cent spike from the previous month.
Health Minister Blair Boyer said patient flow was affected by a record number of older South Australians waiting for federally funded aged care placements.
Currently, 466 older people remain in metropolitan hospitals and other SA Health facilities despite being medically ready for discharge, Boyer said.
He said that of these, 124 older people were waiting for dementia-specific care, which the loan scheme would prioritise.
Aged care providers must start construction within 12 months of the loan, and the new aged care beds must be operational within 48 months.
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Shadow Health Minister Jack Batty claimed the 466 older people waiting for an aged care bed had grown “significantly” since the government first announced this policy in February.
“Six months ago Labor promised an ‘immediate pipeline’ of up to 650 new aged care beds. Today, we still don’t know where those 650 beds will be, who will build them or when the first one will actually become available,” Batty said.
“Meanwhile, the problem Labor said this policy would address has become significantly worse.
“There were 363 people waiting [for aged care beds] when the policy was announced in February. Today there are 466.
“In Blair Boyer’s short time as Health Minister, the list of those in hospitals waiting for an aged care bed has increased by more than 100.”
Boyer said today the 466-patient total is up from 60 patients in 2022, which showed more federal investment was needed, but the state was “doing what we can”.
Today’s announcement comes weeks after Federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced five sites in Adelaide had been chosen under a federal Aged Care Capital Assistance Program, which would give providers a $134.5 million boost to create 268 new beds.
ACH Group received a $17.6 million grant from the federal government to build a new residential aged care home at Dover Gardens, with 150 new beds.
Amber Aged Care at Paradise received $10.4 million and Estia Health Salisbury received $5 million to expand their sites, while Pennwood Kings Park and St Raphael’s Home for the Aged at Lockleys received funding for upgrades.
The state government scheme opens for loan applications next week.
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