Australia’s health policy Dark Age? The 1260 years patients are stuck in hospital waiting for an aged care bed
Queensland and Tasmania have reported sharp rises in delayed discharges.
The public debate is obsessed about crippling health budgets, egregious specialist fees and mass Medicare rorts.
So you would think that there would be more sound and fury about the resources being squandered in a system where thousands of patients are stuck in hospital because they have no alternative place to go.
Last week, the AMA published for the first time its Aged Care Report Card.
Based on the most recent information it said that elderly patients in need of an aged care placement accounted for 460,122 hospital patient days in 2023/24.
