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Home > Ministers > The Hon Nicola Roxon MP - Minister for Health and Ageing > Media Hub > Building an Australian Aged Care System: Increasing the Capacity of the Aged Care System

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PDF printable version of Building an Australian Aged Care System: Increasing the Capacity of the Aged Care System (PDF 23 KB)

Joint Release

Prime Minister

Minister For Health

Minister For Ageing

12 April 2010

The Rudd Government will provide $263 million over four years to improve access to aged care services to better support older Australians.

Australia’s aged care system provides targeted, affordable and high quality care but a number of challenges need to be addressed to ensure the needs of Australia’s growing number of elderly people are met.

The supply of aged care places needs to continue to grow to meet increased demand. But in recent years there has been a downturn in construction activity in the residential sector and a lack of suitable applications from qualified aged care providers to be able to allocate all the new residential aged care places the Government has made available.

To build on other aged care initiatives and increase the capacity of the aged care system to meet growing demands, the Government will:

• Provide a further $300 million in Zero Real Interest Loans to provide low cost finance to support investment in aged care services in areas of need;
• Provide $120 million in capital funding for 286 sub-acute beds or bed-equivalents in Multi-Purpose Services to better support people in rural and remote areas; and
• Work with the states and territories to commit to release more land for aged care and accelerate the planning approvals process so that aged care places can become operational more quickly.

More Zero Real Interest Loans to support investment

The Government’s Zero Real Interest Loan initiative provides low cost finance to aged care providers to support the construction and investment, providing important capital assistance to the aged care sector. It has already proved successful in expanding aged care services.

In addition to extending its Zero Real Interest Loan initiative for a further two years, the Government will modify the initiative so that:

• Areas defined as high need include areas with relatively higher numbers of older patients in hospitals waiting for discharge to aged care;
• Aged care providers will be able to seek loans in respect of places that have been allocated but are not yet operational to assist places become operational more quickly; and
• The repayment period is extended for new zero real interest loans from the current 12 years to 22 years.

The allocation of zero real interest loans will be made in two equal rounds of $150 million in conjunction with the 2010-11 and 2011-12 Aged Care Approvals Rounds and is expected to deliver 2,500 more aged care places.

Expanding Multi-Purpose Services to support rural and remote communities

Multi-Purpose Services provide integrated health and aged care services, generally in hospital settings, and are an important part of the health system in rural and remote areas.

The Government will provide $120 million in capital funding over four years for 286 sub-acute beds or bed-equivalents to expand these services, building on the existing 126 Multi-Purpose Services.

This will support up to 5,400 people a year when fully implemented.

The Government will also make it easier to establish new Multi-Purpose Services by allowing them to be established in larger communities, creating an additional 300 beds.

More land and fast development for residential aged care facilities

The Commonwealth Government will work with the states and territories to commit to release more land for aged care. The Commonwealth will work through COAG to accelerate planning approval processes, allowing places to become operational more quickly. This could include:

• Identifying aged care as a priority in state planning systems;
• Recognizing residential aged care as a class of residential development that may not require the same approval requirements as other residential developments; and
• A process for determination of aged care development applications that are not finalised within 12 months.

Together with other elements of the Government’s investment in aged care, these measures will help the aged care sector expand to meet the increasing demand driven by Australia’s ageing population.

These measures build on the Government’s existing investments in aged care which have resulted in a nearly 20 per cent increase in funding and the addition of more than 10,000 aged care places.

In building the National Health and Hospitals Network, the Government is determined to get the hospital and aged care systems working together to ensure better health and better care for older Australians.

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