New data shows aged care shortage while ambo response time improvements lead the nation

The latest national report card from the Productivity Commission shows South Australia has the longest waits in the country for a Federal aged care bed.

It comes as the first two years of the Malinauskas Labor Government have demonstrated a 37-minute improvement in Adelaide’s 90th percentile ambulance response times – far exceeding the performance of other capital cities.

Elderly South Australians are waiting 253 days to be placed in aged care – the longest in the nation and almost double the national average of 136 days, according to the Productivity Commission Report on Government Services released last night.

South Australia also has the highest rate in the nation of hospital patient days used by South Australians waiting for an aged care bed - 24.4 days in 2022-23, compared to the national average of 13.2 days. This is an increase of almost 35% in two years.

Our state also has 23% fewer operational aged care places per capita than we did when the data first started being tracked in 2015.

SA Health is today launching a new public dashboard on the SA Health website, to be updated weekly, highlighting the impact of this problem.

The latest audit in South Australia, from 3 February, shows there are currently 253 patients stuck in metro hospitals ready for discharge but awaiting a Federal aged care placement – a 158 per cent increase in just 15 months.

Meanwhile a lack of primary care also continues to impact South Australia.

The percentage of people who have delayed or did not see a GP due to cost more than doubled in SA (2.4% in 2020-21 vs 7.3% in 2023-24) – the highest in a decade.

The percentage of people who delayed or did not get prescription medication due to cost increased in SA (5.1% in 2022-23 vs 7.0% in 2023-24).

After a decade of cuts, neglect, and inaction from successive federal Liberal Governments, South Australia welcomes efforts by the Albanese Labor Government to improve primary care and aged care – but we know there is more work to do.

The State Government is opening 55 extra beds at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre as part of a 70-bed specialised hospital service for older South Australians awaiting Federal Government aged care.

Despite these challenges, according to the latest Productivity Commission report, South Australia has achieved the biggest improvements in the nation in ambulance response times in both of the past two years.

It shows that average ambulance response times in metropolitan Adelaide improved by more than 38 per cent in Labor’s second year in government with the SA Ambulance Service responding to 90 per cent of all incidents within 34.3 minutes – compared to 55.6 minutes the year before – which is more than 21 minutes quicker.

This is a marked improvement on ambulance response times compared to under the Liberals, when 90 per cent of all incidents were responded to within a whopping 71.3 minutes in 2021-22.

The first two years of the Malinauskas Labor Government have seen an overall 37-minute improvement – far exceeding the improvement of all other capital cities.

The new public dashboard showing aged care delays impacting hospitals can be viewed here.

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Quotes

Attributable to Chris Picton

Right now there are a staggering 253 older South Australians who are medically ready to leave hospital but are stuck there because they’re waiting for an aged care bed.

That’s the equivalent of more than the entire Modbury Hospital taken out of the system.

The latest Productivity Commission national report card shows SA has the longest waits in the country for a federal aged care bed.

We welcome the Albanese Government’s efforts to address this problem, after years of inaction from previous Liberal governments, but we know there’s more to do.

At the same time we welcome the fact that this report demonstrates nation-leading improvements in ambulance response times over the past two years.

The waiting time for the 90th percentile of patients has more than halved – which means more South Australians are getting the life-saving ambulance service they need on time.