Feds absent from SA govt emergency talks
The state government’s called an emergency meeting over the “aged care crisis” blaming its federal counterparts. But one key federal minister was not invited and another claims they were not given enough warning.
SA Health Minister Blair Boyer is demanding action from his federal counterparts on the aged care bed block, but gave them less than a week’s notice in inviting them to appear before the state’s unions in crisis talks.
Federal Aged Care Minister Sam Rae will not attend the aged care crisis talks held today, after receiving four days’ notice from SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and SA Health Minister Blair Boyer.
A spokesperson for Rae – a Victorian MP – said he was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. But InDaily understands a counteroffer had been made inviting Boyer and Malinauskas to meet in Canberra.
InDaily understands Rae was the first to be invited when the snap meeting was called after new modelling emerged showing that the number of aged care patients stuck in hospital beds with no aged care placement available was forecast to hit new heights.
The forecasting, according to the state government, showed that by next winter, 700 medically discharged people would be stuck in SA Hospitals waiting for an aged care bed. Current figures show a queue of about 500, compared to 60 in 2022, when the Malinauskas Labor government was elected.
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InDaily understands South Australia has received the most amount of money per capita than any other state to tackle the aged care crisis and a federal government spokesperson said SA providers had received a $134.5 million package to deliver 268 new residential aged care beds across five Adelaide sites.
The state government has said today’s crisis talks would bring together unions, industry groups and advocacy bodies to “demand action from the federal government”.
Liberal health spokesperson Jack Batty called it “a blame game”.
“I don’t understand how the relationship between Canberra and Adelaide is so deteriorated to this point, if this is just going to be another platform for a blame game between different levels of Labor government, that really isn’t going to help anyone,” Batty told ABC Radio on Tuesday morning.
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Boyer responded by saying if Batty has a range of policy ideas, he would “love to hear them”. He said it was important for “all parts of the sector” to share “horror stories” to put pressure on the federal government to act.
Batty was not invited to today’s crisis talks, nor was Federal Health Minister Mark Butler.
Boyer said he had raised the issue of aged care patients filling hospital beds “over a series of meetings and in lots of different forums” with Butler, who would also be in attendance at next month’s national health ministers’ meeting in Adelaide.
“Unless all parts of the sector start speaking about the magnitude of the problem and telling some of the horror stories that are coming out of people dying waiting for a bed, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be elevated to the level of a national crisis, which is exactly what it is,” Boyer said.
“I mean, people who don’t need to be in a hospital bed, in some cases, are passing away in one of those while they wait for a residential aged care bed. If that doesn’t qualify for crisis, I don’t know what does.”
Asked about how the states were being supported to tackle the aged care crisis, a federal government spokesperson said: “Delayed discharge is a nationwide challenge and is rightly a focus for all levels of government”.
“It’s why we’ve secured a record $25 billion deal with the states and territories to ease pressure on hospitals and we’re investing $600 million in 27 state and territory initiatives to reduce delayed discharge, as well as expanding transition care places to help older Australians leave hospital sooner,” the spokesperson said.
Today’s talks follow another aged care roundtable hosted by Boyer last week, but will today include Premier Peter Malinauskas and representatives from across the healthcare sector, including the chief of the national peak body Ageing Australia, who is flying into Adelaide to attend.
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