THERE are 873 residents in the Grampians region waiting for their approved home care packages to be implemented.
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Figures released for the December quarter for 2019, show that more than 100,000 older Australian's remain on the waiting list, even after their applications for home care have been approved.
Ballarat MP Catherine King has labelled the figures "simply not good enough" and has called on the Federal Government to lift its game in response to the interim report of the Aged Care Royal Commission.
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In the Royal Commission report released in October 2019, it says; "The aged care system is unable to deal with the level of demand for home care services.
"Waiting times of up to 12 months or more for high care Level 4 home care packages are unacceptable. People are dying on the waiting list.
"The Royal Commission believes that significant additional funding is needed immediately and in the future to increase access to Home Care Packages."
Ms King said the figures show the community needs help.
"The Morrison Government cannot wait for the COVID-19 crisis to be over to do more to fix our aged care system," she said.
"Home care has never been more important than it is now, but these figures show 100,000 older Australians and 873 residents of our region are at home without the services they need during this crisis."
On 25 November 2019, the government announced that an additional $496.3 million would be spent on 10,000 home care packages across 2019-20 and 2020-21.
This included 3000 level 3 and 2500 level 4 (highest care packages) in 2019-20 and 2000 level 2, 2000 level 3 and 500 level 4 packages in 2020-21. The packages commenced being rolled out in December 2019.
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said the federal government understood more work was needed.
"Improving aged care for Senior Australians continues to be one of the Morrison Government's key priorities," Senator Colbeck said.
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"The government is also committed to giving senior Australians support to live in their own homes for longer.
Since the 2018-19 Budget, the government has invested in providing 44,000 new home care package at a cost of $2.7billion."
Senator Colbeck also said home care packages will have increased 160 per cent since 2012-13 by 2022-23.
"Over the same period, funding will increase by 249 per cent due to growth in high-level packages," he said.
"Ms King would no doubt be aware that Labor at the election provided no additional funding in their costings for home care places or any additional funding for aged care quality, workforce or mainstream residential aged care.
"The Government has invested an additional $2.7 billion since the 2018-19 Budget to address the waitlist for home care packages.
"Additionally, the most recent Aged Care Approvals Round (2018-19) prioritised allocations to non-metro locations, which resulted in the allocation of 5276 residential care places worth over $354 million in annual recurrent funding and $60 million in capital grants allocated to regional and rural Australia."
But Ms King countered by saying waiting times have increased by almost 300 per cent with "older Australians waiting longer and longer for permanent care or a home care package".
"Scott Morrison and the Government must do better to ensure older Australians get the quality aged care services they deserve now," she said.
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