A new squad of geriatric doctors and nurses will work across Adelaide hospitals and aged care homes to help reduce the soaring number of aged care patients stuck in hospitals.
South Australia is developing new Geriatric Outreach Services, building on several of the state's successful older person's services working with Residential Aged Care Homes across the state.
As part of the Strengthening Medicare investment made by the Albanese Labor Government in the 2024-25 Budget, the Malinauskas Government is now rolling out a $34.9 million suite of initiatives focussed on increasing collaboration between hospitals and aged care homes.
The services are aimed at improving patient care for older people with dementia or cognitive decline, preventing avoidable hospital admissions and helping patients move from hospital into aged care.
There are currently 283 older patients stuck in hospital medically ready for discharge but waiting for a Federal Government aged care bed – a 372 per cent increase compared to October 2022.
This includes almost 100 patients awaiting a Memory Support Unit placement.
A new $1.7 million service began last week at Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, which incorporates and expands on the existing Residential Aged Care Facility In-Reach Service and the Memory Support Transition Service.
It involves a team of specialist staff working with patients in aged care, expanding from eight to 12 psychogeriatric beds, plus support for ten inpatients transitioning to aged care homes.
Across the metro area, the services will provide multi-disciplinary support into aged care facilities, with a focus on providing geriatrician-led specialist care to patients who require support with managing complex geriatric conditions.
The new federally-funded services will be more accessible, operating seven days a week.
Work is also underway to establish complementary services to support people in regional settings.
The services build on the new 32-bed unit built at the Repat Health Precinct dedicated to inpatient geriatric and complex management for older patients, which opened in 2024. This project is part of the $498 million expansion of the Repat and Flinders Medical Centre that is jointly funded by the Federal and State Labor Governments.
Our focus on this patient cohort has already resulted in the opening of 20 dedicated older person's beds at FMC, the new 70-bed CO-ACT Model at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, and the new Urgent Care Hub based at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
Moving older patients out of hospital who no longer need to be there is key to improving patient flow, and reducing bed-block and ramping.
Ramping in August was better than June and July and also lower than the same time last year, with ambulances spending 5,201 hours ramped outside hospitals in August, 665 fewer hours than July.
The improvement in ramping occurred despite the fact there was a 4 per cent increase in people arriving at emergency departments amid the continuing busy flu season.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital had a significant 24 per cent reduction in ramping this month – coinciding with the opening of 26 more fast-tracked beds.
Despite the demand on our hospitals, 30,926 elective surgery operations have been conducted this year – an increase of 1,138 more South Australians receiving surgery compared to the same time last year.
Response times also improved in August, with ambulances reaching 69.5 per cent of Priority 1 cases in the target timeframe of 8 minutes, compared to only 47.1 per cent in January 2022.
Ambulances reached 59.1 per cent of Priority 2 cases in the target 16-minute timeframe in August, compared to only 36.2 per cent in January 2022.
The Malinauskas Government will add an additional 180 beds across the system over the next six months, including 110 new mental health beds at the Queen Elizabeth, Noarlunga, Flinders, Modbury and Mount Gambier hospitals.
Full ramping data – including a hospital-by-hospital breakdown – can be found here.
As put by Chris Picton
Our new geriatric flying squad is our latest tool to help move older patients out of hospital who no longer need to be there and into aged care.
Right now there are a staggering 283 older patients medically ready for discharge stuck in hospital waiting for a Federal Government aged care bed. That's not fair for them, or the health system.
Our doctors, nurses and specialised staff will be going out to aged care providers to help them with the transition of people from hospital into aged care, particularly those with complex needs.
Our teams will also be working with aged care homes to help residents avoid hospital when safe and appropriate, which is better for patients and our health system.
We welcome the Federal Government compromise with the Senate this week to release 20,000 more aged care packages as thousands of South Australians are languishing at home waiting for packages too.
As put by Repat Health Precinct Rehabilitation, Aged Care and Palliative Care, Professor Craig Whitehead
It can be an incredibly challenging time to have a loved one experience dementia or cognitive decline.
The Geriatric Outreach Services aim to reduce the stress for both the patient and their loved ones by taking a patient-centred approach and ensuring the patient's needs are met before, during and post transition to an aged care facility.
We are thrilled we're able to expand and build on two very successful services in order to provide the best possible specialised care for our older people.
