Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to ask the minister a question about aged-care beds. Recently in the 2005 stocktake, if you want to call it a stocktake, of aged-care beds in the south and western regions of Adelaide there was an undersupply of 287 aged-care beds as at 2005. That undersupply had increased to 315 beds by June 2006. That was approximately a 10 per cent increase in unmet demand. I was wondering what the June 2007 stocktake means for Adelaide’s western and south-western suburbs where there was unmet demand. Perhaps you could give me a figure of what it currently is and whether the supply will meet the demand perhaps by June this year, next year or the year after. When will the demand be met? Will there be another 10 per cent blow-out in undersupply by this June? Can the Australian public expect the unmet demand again to be in the vicinity of the 350 mark, as has been the case for a number of years now when the stocktake is done?

Can the government continue to expect people to move to where the beds are? That is one of the big issues. When people come to see me in my electorate, they tell me about their loved ones, usually their mums or dads, needing a nursing home bed. Usually, they are either in respite or waiting in a public hospital. People may say to me that they have found a nursing home for their mother or father but it is up in Gawler or Elizabeth or down south in Christies, which makes it very difficult for some of these people who are themselves elderly, in their late 60s and 70s, to travel, perhaps every day, to see their loved ones. Even though there may be beds within the vicinity of metropolitan Adelaide, they are some distance away from the western and southern suburbs and that creates a problem for these people. How will we meet the unmet demand for people who need beds to stay within their communities?

The other question I have is: can the minister tell us how many people are in beds in public hospitals waiting for beds in nursing homes in South Australia at any given time—perhaps a snapshot over 12 months? I also want to know about those waiting in respite care for nursing home beds, because that is the other issue. There are many people who come and see me in my electorate whose parents are either in a public hospital or even in a respite bed, but when they are due to come out of the respite bed in two, three or four weeks time there is nowhere for them. Again, it is the same issue about having people close to their communities. I suppose the question is: will that undersupply be met, when and how will it be met, and are there any dates for those targets to be met? If we could get those figures for Shortland in New South Wales, the Hunter and the Central Coast as well. I am sure the staff could get those figures for the member for Shortland.

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