AUSTRALIA: Aged-care crisis call

. HOBART, Tasmania / The Mercury / January 25, 2009 By Mark Worley TASMANIA'S aged-care sector has called for more Federal Government help to build new facilities. TASMANIA'S aged-care sector has called for more Federal Government assistance in the wake of a report that shows local operators Federal Ageing Minister Justine Elliot recently released statistics showing Tasmanian operators are reluctant to build new facilities. The report shows operators had applied to build less than half of the Government's desired quota of aged-care rooms for the 2008-09 financial year. The Federal Government has allocated 131 new aged-care places to Tasmanian providers this year, but only 53 applications have been received. In contrast, Victorian operators have oversubscribed for the Government's approvals round, completing more than 5000 applications to build the 1500 places made available. Aged and Community Services Tasmania chief executive Darren Mathewson said most operators were struggling to find enough staff to fill out the Government's extensive application forms, let alone find money to build new facilities. "The nature of the sector in Tasmania is one where smaller, not-for-profit organisations run about 95 per cent of the facilities in the state," he said. "It is very hard for these smaller operations to find money to build new facilities. "And even if they could find the money to build, the recent closure of some Tasmanian facilities shows how hard it is to manage the high running costs required for aged-care places." Mr Mathewson said Tasmania had a "considerable amount" of aged-care homes in regional areas, but they were in danger of being closed down in favour of larger metropolitan facilities. Just last week Bellvue Manor at Rosny announced it would close its 30-bed facility within the next two months, displacing 22 residents. Ms Elliot, releasing the statistics, said Tasmanian operators had been granted a record number of zero-real-interest loans by the Federal Government to build new facilities. But Mr Mathewson said the loans were a "Band-Aid" approach to a serious problem. "No-interest loans are fine, but most operators still can't make the repayments even without having to pay interest," he said. Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the Government needed to make sure small-town aged-care operators were able to stay in business. "Regional operators do need extra support to ensure locals can grow old in their own communities," he said. But Tasmanian Labor senator Katryna Bilyk said the Government was "very committed" to the long-term viability of the aged-care sector. "These funding challenges have been around for a long time and we are doing all we can to tackle them head-on," she said. © 2008 Davies Brothers Pty Ltd.