David Batt (Hinkler, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Nicholls, noting the government's failure to deliver adequate aged-care beds, with an annual shortfall of more than 9,000 beds.

I serve the community with the second-highest number of people aged over 65 in Australia. I also represent the community with the highest number of people living with long-term health conditions. In my electorate of Hinkler, the aged-care crisis is real. Resort-style living for over 50s is booming, and this simply emphasises the desperate need for real action now to address a critical shortfall of aged-care beds. The demand for beds is dangerously high, and it is rising. Aged-care facilities that have applied for extra beds are being knocked back. Dementia patients are taking up public hospital beds while waiting for permanent aged-care spaces. Hinkler is losing our elderly, who are being forced to relocate out of their hometowns, away from family, away from friends and away from their community, because they can't find a local aged-care bed.

The Queensland health minister, Tim Nicholls, announced only last week that people waiting in public hospitals for more appropriate care are costing Queensland $2.5 million every day. That's money that's not being diverted into emergency departments or other surgeries. Petronella Davis is in Bundaberg Base Hospital waiting for an aged-care bed. Her husband, George, thought retirement would be the best time of his life—as it should be—but 80-year-old George spends every single day travelling 100 kilometres to sit by his wife's side in hospital. Petronella is not in need of a hospital bed. At 79 years old, Petronella has rapidly progressive dementia and is no longer able to be cared for in her home. Mrs Davis is a stranded patient, one of around a thousand people in Queensland taking up a public hospital bed while waiting for a more permanent care solution.

Forest View Care, in the country town of Childers, has 30 beds. Childers is in the heart of my electorate of Hinkler and is Petronella and George's hometown. In October, I wrote a letter of support for Forest View as it appealed the department's decision to refuse funding for new beds. Forest View General Manager Andrew Ainscough had unsuccessfully applied to the government four times for an additional 44 beds. Andrew says it's never been harder to find care for patients, and he is searching for answers to why they continue to be knocked back when the need is so great.

In Childers, Andrew says there are currently 472 people on their waitlist alone. Andrew, who has almost 30 years of experience in nursing, tells me that this is the hardest it's been to find adequate care for our community. He is over it. He is angry. He's desperate. This is dire. Put the money into beds. We must reward the services who are trying to make lives better and enable them to help more.

Hinkler is home to a high percentage of people in the prime of their life and moving into their golden years. So the demand for medical services is being stretched, and we are struggling to find enough support. Aged-care facilities are full. Wait times are up to three years. I support the concept of allowing people to stay at home longer, but with that you need affordable and reliable support mechanisms. This is clearly not happening, and the current system isn't working. The government must change and adapt. Locals and pioneers of my region are the reasons we live in a great place, and they shouldn't be told to move away just because we can't find them a bed.

This government is forcing older Australians to remain in hospital beds when they have no medical need to be there, leaving them effectively homeless due to a severe shortage of aged-care placements. This is at the expense of other patients needing urgent care. The warnings from state health ministers couldn't be clearer. These Labor government failures are blocking hospital beds, contributing to bed block in emergency departments, cancelled surgeries and gridlock across public hospital systems.

While the government claims to be investing, the current approach is clearly failing older Australians, hospital staff and patients and demonstrates yet another example of the government announcing big promises without delivering. The federal government is failing stranded Australians. The current model for aged care is not working.

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