Older people are being left waiting as the need for aged care races ahead of the help on offer, and providers from Port Macquarie to Port Stephens say the system is struggling to keep up.
The warning came at an aged care roundtable in Taree, where local providers gathered alongside Ageing Australia representatives to talk through the pressures facing services across the region, and how to fix them.
“The uncomfortable reality is the need for care is growing faster than the system’s capacity to provide it, and the consequences are being felt by older Australians, their families and those working on the frontline,” said Federal Member for Lyne Alison Penfold, who hosted the roundtable.
Penfold said providers from across the Lyne electorate exposed the mounting pressure on residential aged care, and on support for older people who want to stay in their own homes.
She said behind every aged care waiting list was an older Australian who needed help, a family trying to get dignified care, and providers doing their best with the resources available.
And the numbers behind those concerns are confronting.
“Sixty residential aged care providers have left the sector over the past 12 months, and there is a shortfall of 110,000 aged care workers,” Penfold said.
“Hundreds of thousands of Australians are waiting for an aged-care assessment and more than 106,000 Australians are waiting for a Support at Home package.”
“On top of that, an additional 10,000 aged care beds are needed to be built each year, yet only 800 were built last year.”
Providers raised serious concerns about whether funding covers the real costs of care, workforce shortages, overwhelming regulatory and administrative loads, and the difficulty of delivering sustainable care in regional communities.
“We have older Australians whose needs are becoming more acute, families struggling to secure appropriate support and providers facing enormous pressure to maintain and expand services,” Penfold said.
“Whether it is a residential aged care place or help to remain safely at home, the fundamental issue is the same: the care people need and the capacity of the system to deliver it are increasingly out of step.”
“Providers cannot simply absorb rising costs, meet ever-increasing demand and navigate growing regulatory obligations without the funding and workforce to support them.”
For the people at the centre of it all, time is not on their side.
“Older Australians cannot be expected to put their care needs on hold while the system catches up,” Penfold said.
She said regional providers faced particular challenges, including recruiting and keeping staff, access to allied health, the cost of delivering services across large areas, and keeping local services viable.
Participants were also frustrated by the time and resources swallowed up by complex administrative and regulatory requirements.
“It’s a paperwork monster,” Penfold said.
“Regulation is essential to protecting older Australians and ensuring quality care but when providers are spending more time navigating bureaucracy and less time delivering services and care minutes, we need to ask whether the balance is right.”
“We cannot regulate our way out of a shortage of care places, workers or funding.”
“We cannot pretend that increasing demand for aged care will somehow be met without confronting the financial realities of delivering it.”
Penfold said the challenges were significant and there were no simple or immediate fixes.
“I am not suggesting that every problem raised at the roundtable has an easy answer,” she said.
“The pressures on aged care are complex, and providers themselves recognise that but acknowledging that complexity cannot become an excuse for inaction.”
“What impressed me yesterday was the commitment of our local providers to the older Australians they serve, despite the extraordinary pressures they face.”
“Many are providing services the system does not pay for but their residents or clients need.”
But she said those providers were not being heard where it counts.
“Their experience needs to inform government decisions but the government decision makers are not talking to them. That is not good enough,” Ms Penfold said.
She will take the concerns raised directly to Minister for Aged Care and Seniors Sam Rae during the next sitting of Federal Parliament.
“I have a meeting with the Minister and will be providing him with the key issues raised at the roundtable and the solutions offered,” Penfold said.
“I hope he will listen and respond to ensure the ongoing viability and accessibility of local aged-care services.”
“For any government, the measure of success is not how many reforms governments announce or how many rules they introduce, it is whether an older Australian who needs care can actually get it.”
Penfold thanked Ageing Australia and the local providers for their candid contributions and ongoing commitment to their communities.
“Our older Australians have contributed to their families, workplaces and communities over a lifetime,” she said.
“They deserve a system which responds when they need help.”
“Yesterday’s roundtable was not about pretending we had all the answers.”
“It was about listening to the people delivering care, confronting the scale of the problem and ensuring their voices are heard where decisions are made.”
Read all the way through to the end of the story? So did lots of other people. Advertise with North Coast Times to reach locals who are interested and engaged. Find out more here.