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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (13 December) . . Page.. 294 ..

Care Facility. Some facilities cater for residents who will "Age in Place" meaning they enter the facility as a resident needing a low level of care and may remain in the same facility as their care needs increase. Many, but not all Aged Care Facilities now cater for both high and low care.

(a) How many public nursing home beds and respite beds are there.

i) There are no public nursing home beds in the ACT.

ii) The ACT Government funds 15 emergency respite beds at Burrangiri Respite Care Centre. There are also a number of non residential day centre and community programs for respite in operation.

(b) How many private nursing home beds and respite beds are there.

i) In the ACT residential aged care places are funded by the Commonwealth Government. As of December 2001 there is a total of 704 approved high care places, 942 approved low care places and 352 approved Community Aged Care Packages in the ACT. A number of these places (122) are not yet operational. Of these 122 places, 52 are non-operational due to building extensions and 76 have not yet been allocated by the Commonwealth.

ii) The Commonwealth Government also purchases respite care days per year under the ACT Residential Aged Care Program. There are 51 beds that equal 18,615 care days per year in residential facilities that are designated for respite care.

In the 2000-01 financial year the ACT also received approval for an additional 10 respite beds specifically targeted to people with dementia. These beds are yet to be constructed and will become available in the next 18 months to 2 years.

3. By region, are there any figures on (a) waiting lists for nursing home beds by region, or (b) in total and if so, (c) what are they.

i) The waiting list for nursing homes is held by the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT). Clients are grouped by where they are waiting, i.e. hospital or community rather than by region.

On 7 December 2001 there were 79 people currently on the waiting list, as follows:

Calvary Hospital 13

The Canberra Hospital 17

Private Hospitals 3

Hospice 3

Community 47

These figures include clients from Queanbeyan, most of whom are awaiting placement in NSW, and other interstate clients with family in the ACT who are waiting to access residential care in the ACT.

In addition aged care facilities hold their own waiting lists and often admit clients from these lists rather than going through the Aged Care Assessment Team.

It should be noted that some people request to stay on the waiting list for some time before accepting a place offered to them.

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