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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 40 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 17 February 2022 by Ms H.M. Beazley

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

FROM-HOSPITAL-TO-HOME TRANSITION PILOT PROGRAM

40. Ms H.M. BEAZLEY to the Minister for Health:

I refer to the McGowan Labor government's effort in addressing the challenges of long-stay patients in our hospitals. Can the minister update the house on the work underway by the government in addressing these challenges, including the 12-bed from-hospital-to-home disability support transition pilot program?

Ms A. SANDERSON replied:

I thank the member for Victoria Park for her question.

This issue is and has been significantly impacting our hospitals for a number of years—that is, the issue of patients in hospital who need to go to an aged-care placement or are awaiting their support package from the National Disability Insurance Scheme. At any one time there are about 130 beds occupied by patients who no longer need hospital care, and the main reason is a lack of accommodation through disability services or aged care. There is no good medical reason for them to stay; in fact, it is undignified for them to stay. They do not want to be in hospital; they want to be in a community setting. It is not good for our system and it is not good for them. It costs around $100 million a year, impacts on emergency wait times and is one of the significant contributors to ramping.

The state government, however, is stepping up and stepping into the space that has been left by the commonwealth with these agencies. The Department of Health is leading a cross-agency working group with the Department of Communities and the Mental Health Commission to work on discharge opportunities for these patients and support for patients to stay in a community setting. It does require intensive case management. There are caseworkers for each of these patients working with various government departments to find them housing, NDIS and aged-care placements, in some instances providing $670 000 for packages for interim disability supports, filling the gap that the NDIS is leaving. The state government is doing that. Since 1 July 2021, the department supported 170 patients' discharge from hospital into a more appropriate care setting.

It is very labour intensive, but the outcomes are really profound for the system and for those patients. Many of them have been waiting years for an NDIS package. I am sure every member in this place has been working with constituents who are lost in the vortex of the NDIS bureaucracy. That is what it is. Certainly, local constituents in my office receive apologies from the NDIS for cutting plans and for pretty shoddy treatment at times, but they have already had to wait two years to get their plans put in place. It is really substandard and it needs to be fixed by the commonwealth.

The number of NDIS long stays dropped below 100 for the first time since this program commenced. It is really good work that was started by my predecessor in this portfolio. In November 2021, the WA government launched the 12-bed from-hospital-to-home facility, the disability support transition pilot. It is a 12-bed accommodation unit for people aged 30 to 65 years for up to 18 weeks while the NDIS and longer term community supports are secured to get them out of hospital. As of February, 12 long-stay patients were supported through this pilot. It is a $2.8 million pilot and is very good value for money. We will be expanding that pilot to support more complex disability-related health services.

What I would say is that this crisis for those patients also represents the fact that Western Australia does not have its fair share of aged-care places. We do not have our fair share when it comes to aged care. Fifty-eight patients in Western Australian hospitals are waiting more than two weeks to access aged care. We have the lowest rate of residential aged-care places in the country. In 2019–20, there were the longest ever average wait times to access services. The median wait time to enter a residential aged-care facility in Western Australia is 203 days. People can be in hospital for 203 days waiting for that placement. Older Western Australians received 7.9 per cent of Australia's home care placements—7.9 per cent! Older Aboriginal Western Australians have an even harder time finding aged-care places, and that is why WA Country Health Service, the Department of Health and the state government step in and provide residential aged care in regional Western Australia to support those. When the opposition goes on and on about ramping and bed blockages in the system, they would do well to talk to their commonwealth colleagues and get them to step up and do their bit.