RIVERINA aged care providers have echoed concerns that demand for help is being placed on hospitals.
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It comes as latest data shows the majority of elderly Australians take one to nine months to enter an aged care facility on a government subsidised place.
But the wait for those able to privately pay for a place in one of the Riverina’s aged care facilities remains unknown, as these places have no legal obligation to disclose how high their expression of interest is to the public.
Earlier this week, The Daily Advertiser reported that elderly Wagga residents in the city’s hospital were being moved to outlying hospitals more than an hour away while waiting for a space in a nursing home.
Murrumbidgee Local Health District regional general manager Rosemary Garthwaite defended the moves as necessary to free up space for higher care patients when beds were in demand.
Low care aged care residence Cooinda Court in Junee currently has seven people waiting for one of its 22 beds.
Chairwoman Pam Halliburton said the level of interest is completely unprecedented compared to previous years.
“We’ve had an increase in demand I feel,” she said.
“That’s a significant demand, because it is all from Junee people who want to be cared for locally.”
Preparations needed to be made now to better accommodate baby boomers who will begin entering the aged care system in the next few years, Ms Halliburton said.
“Modern medicine now allows people to live to live longer,” Ms Halliburton said.
“When the aged care facility was opened 25 years ago, we had people coming into it which were much more mobile then they are now.”
Right at Home Southern New South Wales is a franchise originating from the United States which provides care services to elderly people living in their home.
Its owner Geoff Cook said since opening it with his wife, consultancy nurse Bronwyn Cook, in June the service had around 100 clients in Wagga and the surrounding area.
“We actually identified that there was a need or a want for people to be looked after in their own homes,” he said.
Mr Cook said a significant number of clients were waiting for a place in one of Wagga’s aged care facilities.
“There is just not the places,” he said.
“That obviously then puts pressure on the rest of the health system to look after people who obviously need some care.”
A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Health said it was not involved in how residential care services managed their waiting lists.