Elderly die while waiting for care

AGED-CARE queues have blown out to more than a year’s wait for almost 100,000 elderly Aussies and some risk dying before getting home help.

People too frail to feed or wash themselves are being forced to wait at least 12 months for care in their own home, despite getting the green light from government assessors for taxpayer-funded care. Agedcare advocates have warned people could die waiting.

New government data reveals 95,831 Australians approved for a taxpayer-funded “home care package’’ (HCP) will need to wait at least 12 months for the service.

Wait times have blown out to more than a year for 97 per cent of elderly Aussies in the aged-care queue because demand is outstripping funding.

Just 3437 people can expect assistance within three to six months, and only because they have “basic care needs’’ that are cheaper to fund.

At the end of October, 99,268 Australians were in the queue for aged care after medical assessors deemed them to be in need of help to stay in their own homes.

They include 14,314 elderly people with “high-care needs’’, who require constant nursing care and help to eat and shower; and 40,480 with “intermediatecare needs’’, who need help with medication, meals and housework.

All those waiting have already been approved for an HCP, which provides between $9000 and $52,000 a year to pay for nursing care, housework, meals and allied health care in their own homes.

Queensland’s queue of 15,126 includes 1913 of the frailest people with high needs.

Year-long queues have become the norm, despite the Morrison government pouring $2.4bn into 33,000 extra home care packages over the next four years.

Council on the Ageing chief executive Ian Yates on Sunday warned that some Australians could die on the waiting list.

The royal commission into aged-care abuse revealed 16,000 Australians on the waiting list died before they could access care in 2019.

Mr Yates said no one approved for care should have to wait more than two months for assistance.

“In modern Australia it is totally unacceptable that anyone should have to wait a year for a package after the government has assessed it’s needed,’’ he said.

“Very often these people need assistance with personal care, showering and dressing. People don’t eat properly, and they don’t get access to showers as often as they should.’’

A federal Health Department spokesman said 10,000 more HCPs had been funded last month, at a cost of $850m, on top of 23,000 packages costing $1.6bn in the October federal budget.