‘National crisis:’ State and territory leaders meet on bed-shortage crisis

State and territory leaders met for an hour-long emergency meeting on Wednesday, united in pushing Canberra to fix Australia’s aged care bed shortage.

Premier David Crisafulli said there was a “real willingness” from his counterparts to take negotiations forward.

“This is a national issue, it is a national crisis, and it’s a national responsibility, and states and territories across the board are uniting to rescue the stranded Australians,” he said.

Mr Crisafulli said negotiations would be done in a “respectful” but “forceful” way.

Leaders have now left the ball in the federal government’s court, and when asked if they are pushing for an urgent national cabinet, Mr Crisafulli said they were giving the Commonwealth a chance to come to the table now.

“We’ve got a strong position to be able to take this forward and that was well and truly reached.

“Let’s allow the federal government to be given the opportunity to do what they are responsible for,” he said.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park lashed out at the federal government over its handling of aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme just hours before the emergency health meeting, saying 1100 hospitals beds across the state cannot be used.

Mr Park said he would not be attending the meeting, but “they know my opinion”.

“I’m not asking the Commonwealth to run our emergency departments,” he said.

“I’m asking them to do their job, and their job is to run aged care and NDIS, and at the moment, they’re not doing their job.”

Mr Park said 1100 beds could not be used by people coming into hospital needing acute care on Wednesday morning.

He said the NDIS needed to be “sorted so that we can get those people out of hospital” and either back home or in a residential care facility with NDIS support.

“It’s not a system that’s working. It’s not fair on patients, it’s not fair on staff, and it’s not fair on the community,” he said.

“We’ve got a two-funded health system, whether people like it or not.

“It can’t be one side doing everything and the other side not holding up their end of the bargain.”

It comes as a Grattan Institute report on hospital funding said the federal government should front up the cost of patients stuck waiting for aged care or disability services in hospital.

Taxpayers are spending $6000 more for a hospital visit of a person about to enter an aged care facility than an otherwise identical patient returning home, adding up to $75m across all patients.

More than 3700 people across the country remain stranded in hospital despite being clinically fit for discharge.

Lead author and Grattan Institute Health Program Director Peter Breadon said the federal government should pay for the extra days in hospital after the person is fit to leave, as well as alternate accommodation.

“This is adding a meaningful amount of cost, just the extra stay in hospital, in a system that’s already under significant and growing pressure,” Mr Breadon said.

“The other thing we’ve seen in our research is that those costs are ramping up really quickly … if action is not taken, the risk is that those trends will continue.”