Perth declared an aged care hot-spot, as providers warn $115m Federal funding boost just a ‘drop in the ocean’

A $115 million blitz by the Albanese Government to target aged care ‘hot spots’, including Perth, has been described as a “drop in the ocean” by providers who can’t keep up with demand. State Government modelling has warned that WA needs another 2800 beds by 2029-30. Southern Cross Care WA Chief Executive Clare Grieveson said that’s a conservative estimate, as the baby boomer generation starts to need care. “It’s a number of things coming together to create a perfect storm for us. We are in danger of falling further behind,” she said. “We’ve got higher labour costs, we’ve also got a really historic under-supply of infrastructure funding here in WA and a lot of the beds that are currently open are ageing, so they will be taken offline in the next 10 to 15 years because they’re not fit for purpose anymore. “It’s critical and we’ve known about this for some time.” Perth, Adelaide and the Illawarra and Hunter regions in New South Wales will share in a $115 million boost to the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program, that was announced on Friday. A four-way split would be enough to fund about 50 beds, according to Ernst and Young modelling, due to higher building costs in WA. WA Aged Care Minister Simone McGurk said about 28 new aged care homes are needed in WA, but there was only a net gain of nine nation-wide last year. “It’s a good start... but it won’t go far enough,” Ms McGurk said. “It’s a big need, it’s a huge need and it’s an urgent need.” Federal Minister Sam Rae was confident there’ll be more ‘bang’ for every taxpayer ‘buck’ that Perth gets, as the program aims to get “shovel-ready” aged care developments that had stalled across the line. “We’ll be analysing the speed at which those beds can be made available as part of the decision making process,” he said. “Maybe they are $20 or $30 million projects, and they’ve got a significant amount of their capital ready to go, but they might be, you know, five or six million short. And so making this investment, we can unlock that entire project.” Pressed on whether $115m is enough, he blamed “the former Liberal Government’s cuts and neglect” and denied not enough has been done since then. “This is neither the beginning of this process nor the end of the process. This is just the latest step to address these hot spot issues,” Mr Rae said. But the Cook Government’s request for the Commonwealth to match its new $100 million low-interest loan facility for aged care infrastructure has, so far, been rejected. “The Federal Government’s telling us that they’re not inclined towards a loan scheme, but we’ve said that that’s been welcomed by the sector, and asked them to reconsider that. Frankly, we’re asking for any assistance,” Ms McGurk said. She’s produced figures in Parliament that show WA’s share of funding for home care packages is the worst in the nation and by a long way: $100m behind the second-worst state Queensland and $400m worse off than Victoria. Some who do get approved are only getting part of the package they’re entitled to. “(Home care packages) are flowing through, there has been some increase,” Ms McGurk said. But the backlog is more than 8000 long. “That’s playing out in our hospitals and it’s causing unnecessary stress for older West Australians,” she said. Federal Perth MP Patrick Gorman agreed more is needed, but defended the amount of Government funding when asked if WA is getting a fair share. “We’ve put more than a billion dollars into it,” he said. “If your question is, am I happy with the way the Commonwealth has approached the funding of aged care and making sure that we expand aged care in every state and territory, including significant expansions in Western Australia? My answer is yes. “I think we have to catch up. I think this is one of those areas where failure is not an option, because . . . we all get old”.