375 More Aged Care Places for South Australia

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22 January 2007
JE08/03

The Australian Government has formally announced an additional 375 new residential aged care places for South Australia, the Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, said today.

It was Mrs Elliot’s first visit to South Australia as Minister for Ageing. Two weeks ago, she visited Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The 2006 Census showed South Australia had the greatest proportion of people aged over 65 years of any state or territory in Australia, with the demographic group making up 15.1 per cent of the state’s total population.

Addressing a meeting of local residents and aged care providers in Glenelg North in Adelaide, Mrs Elliot said the allocation totalled an investment of an additional $13.96 million a year. It was made in December as part of the Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR).

“These new places are an important starting point in ensuring that the services in South Australia keep pace with an increasing ageing population,” Mrs Elliot said.

“I look forward to working with local communities and aged care providers to deliver both the quality and appropriate quantity of aged care places that South Australia needs.”

Fourteen aged care providers in South Australia received new aged care place allocations, including:

• 50 high-care places for Canterbury Close Nursing Home in Elizabeth
• 30 high-care and 30 low-care places for the new Southern Adelaide Aged Care Centre development in Daw Park
• 50 high-care places for the new Mannum Residential Care centre in Mannum.

The new places bring the total number of allocated residential aged care places available throughout South Australia to 17,627.

The Federal Member for Hindmarsh, Mr Steve Georganas, welcomed Mrs Elliot to South Australia.

Mr Georganas said: “Today demonstrates the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the Minister for Ageing, the Hon Justine Elliot MP, and South Australians.

“My own electorate - Hindmarsh - has the distinction of having the highest number of aged residents in Australia,” he said.

Mrs Elliot said the Australian Government recognised the importance of ageing and aged care.

“As the Minister for Ageing, I am focussed on delivering the policy commitments we made at the last election,” she said.

“We will be working to change the way the annual allocation of aged care places is conducted to make it more efficient and to better target areas of need.”

“Over the next five years, the Australian Government will create up to 2,000 more transition care beds for older Australians who currently are waiting in hospital. This will help older Australians move from hospital care to more appropriate specialised aged care, or move from hospital back to home,” Mrs Elliot said.

“And while beds, bricks and mortar are important, our aged care system cannot function without a highly experienced aged care workforce.

“The Rudd Government will therefore invest $7 million over five years to encourage 1,000 qualified nurses who have been out of the health workforce for more than 12 months to come back to work in the aged care sector.

“We will also increase the number of training places available for personal care workers as part of the Government's wider expansion of vocational education and training places.

“Importantly, we want to make sure that older Australians have a strong voice and a direct link into the Rudd Government, and I look forward to announcing, later this year, an Ambassador for Ageing, who will promote programs, activities and needs of older people,” Mrs Elliot said.

For more information, contact Mrs Elliot's office on (02) 6277 7280

Details of all allocations are available at: www.health.gov.au/acar2007.

 

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