Arabic version: انتظار أسرّة رعاية المسنين يرهق عائلات جنوب أستراليا
According to ABC News, South Australia has the country’s longest waits for residential aged care beds, leaving families such as Betty Cameron’s searching for options outside their region. Cameron, 74, has waited two years for a bed for her husband Darryl, who has late-stage dementia and lives in NDIS-funded supported independent living care.
Cameron said Darryl’s health is declining and she has been told his funding is likely to end within three weeks. His NDIS provider, Hola Support, said the funding was being reviewed through an NDIS tribunal process. Without an aged care placement, he faces possible hospitalisation. The couple live in the Riverland, three hours from Adelaide, and Cameron said a daily drive to the city would not be feasible if he were moved there.
With no suitable Riverland placement available, Cameron has looked to Mildura, about 150 kilometres away, for a facility she could visit each day. She said the prolonged search had taken a serious mental and physical toll, while her priority remained ensuring her husband receives care and dignity.
About 500 people in South Australian hospitals are waiting for residential aged care beds, up from 60 four years ago. NDIS support coordinator Lisa Turton said shortages had persisted for more than a decade and called for faster infrastructure development, particularly in regional areas, as well as measures to attract staff.
South Australian Health and Wellbeing Minister Blair Boyer said a recent no-interest loan scheme for developers could generate 650 beds and another 600 could be created in part of the old Women’s and Children’s Hospital. He said Australia needs at least 10,600 additional federal residential aged care places annually over the next two decades; 800 beds were added last year. A federal spokesperson said $600 million had been invested in initiatives to reduce delayed discharge and around 5,000 additional beds a year were being supported nationally, including 268 beds across five Adelaide sites.
