Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 1:48:11 to 1:54:48
Officials discuss data collection for older people waiting in hospital beds for aged care places and provide details on capital grants issued to Western Australian providers.
Topics: Health, Social services, Grants administration
Speakers: Ms Sonja Stewart, Megan Lancaster, Ms Kate Berry, Unknown Speaker, Mr Jason Lange, Ms Jasmine Snow, Senator Ellie Whiteaker, Senator The Hon Anne Ruston, Speaker 22
Did I just advise from the department whether you've managed to find those dates that I asked in terms of when the minister received that and would will you have them by the time I get the call in 15 minutes? Fantastic. Thank you.
Senator. My questions around the residential age care. Um how many people assessed as eligible for um residential age care and classed as concessional remain in a hospital bed waiting for a
So um uh I'm Sonia Stewart. The Deputy Secretary. So um what you're referring to is delayed discharge of older people from um the health system into the aged care system. And uh very recently um health ministers from around Australia um have agreed to uh definition of what a delayed discharge um of older person um uh uh constitutes and how it how it is uh defined. Um in terms of the exact number, um where we've got the definition and a plan to collect that information, and I'll hand over to Miss Uh Berry in terms of the status of that. Thank you.
Thanks, Senator Kate Berry, Acting First Assistant Secretary, older people, communities and stakeholder engagement division. So, as Ms. Stewart said we have agreed a definition uh last month. Um the definition will is the first step in a in a fulsome data collection exercise. Um, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare have now been tasked by health ministers to implement that definition. As part of the definition, there will be an understanding of some of the drivers and the barriers that sit behind delayed discharge and of that um a concessional status or issues of finance or other legal issues will be a part of that collection, but we don't have that to date, not yet.
Do we have a time? Timeline or a time frame where you can take this quick question on notice and hopefully provide us with some data?
So the data will take a little bit of time. So as you can imagine, and as you know, the states and territories are the keepers and collectors of hospital data. So in order to implement the definition, it does require the institute to work very collaboratively with the states and territories at the moment to assess their readiness to collect against the definition as agreed. That work will be undertaken by the end of this calendar year, and on the basis of that work, we'll have a better understanding of the implementation time frames in order to provide evidence at a future time.
Amazing.
I think it's important to note. I think it's important to note that even though there's um substantial work to do, it doesn't mean that we're not looking to address that the matter at hand, and um we take that very seriously. So we have a well-established network of staff across Australia that works with our counterparts in the health systems. There's um dedicated government uh programmes such as the transition care program and a whole range of other um initiatives that were funded after under the last um health agreements. So as Miss Berry said, we're working on the definition. Um but there's actions, there's also a secretary-led hospital delayed discharge um task force with um Secretary Comley co-chairs with the New South Wales um head of the health department.
Thank you. Um with the delayed discharge, is there an average waiting time or when you're defining it, have you come to an understanding or consensus of like what that time frame is or how long?
So a temporal issues such as that will be considered as part of the standards uh uh implementation and in collaboration with the states and territories.
Um how many capital grants have been issued to Western Australian providers this year to support the construction of new residential age care facilities?
I'll just get my colleagues from the thank you. Just in response to your last question, I think it also relates to assessment wait times and people that are um urgently requiring care are doing that within that one month um one month time frame if it's urgent.
Yeah. Senator Jason Lange, uh Assistant Secretary uh sector capacity branch. So the figures for Western Australia. So I think Senator, you're talking about the age care capital assistance programme, payments from that. So for Western Australia, the total commitments uh from that grant programme were 127.8 million for Western Australia, which is around 37 projects.
37 projects and the total amount 128?
127.8 million.
27.8 million. Amazing. Um, and how many aged care providers in the country are currently participating in the market adjustment programs? And how many of those are in stream two? And if you could also uh let us know how many of those are in stream three. Two and three. Just give me a few minutes on it. Did you have another question, Senator, while we're waiting on the other ones, just how many of those are in modified Monash category three to seven locations, which I'm sure you'll have.
We do have the breakdown via triple M.
Uh Senator, I have the breakdown by the triple M status. So there were four in Metropolitan MM1, twelve in rural MM3 to five, and three in remote to very remote MM six to seven.
Amazing, thank you.
Senator, I've just realized they're not in my notes, but the team will be able to get those numbers for me in the next half an hour. I can bring that back to the floor.
Excellent. Okay, thank you so much. That's all from me, Chair. Thank you, Senator Payman. Now we were going to go to Senator Bruston next, but I believe she might be on the phone. Senator Gatingby, do you have any questions to Yeah, I'll take the opportunity while Senator Ruskin's not here.