AMA report links aged care failures to hospital pressures

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says Australia’s aged care system is increasingly contributing to hospital congestion, with older people waiting longer for assessments, home care and residential aged care.

The AMA Aged Care Report Card 2026, released this week, highlights growing delays across the aged care pathway and warns that public hospitals are increasingly being used as “holding environments” for patients who are medically ready to leave but cannot access appropriate aged care services.

According to the report, hospital bed days used by people eligible for, and waiting to enter, residential aged care increased from 286,050 in 2020–21 to 460,122 in 2023–24, a rise of more than 60 per cent in three years.

AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said the findings demonstrate that aged care and healthcare should not be siloed.

“This report card makes clear that aged care is not separate from healthcare,” she said.

“Too many older Australians are spending days, weeks or longer in hospital after they have been medically cleared to leave, simply because the care they need is not available. This is not good care.

“It is not dignified for patients, it is not sustainable for hospitals, and it is not an efficient use of scarce health resources.”

The report found the median time between a community referral and an aged care assessment approval has more than doubled, increasing from 20 days in 2018–19 to 43 days in 2024–25. At the 90th percentile, the wait increased from 53 days to 192 days over the same period.

For residential aged care, the report found that while median waits have remained relatively stable, the longest waits remain significant.

In 2024–25, one in 10 older Australians who eventually entered residential aged care waited 1,367 days, or almost four years, after assessment approval.

The report also points to a substantial shift towards home-based care. Home Care Package recipients increased from 79,819 in 2016 to 292,911 in 2025, while rates of residential aged care use declined slightly.

While welcoming efforts to support more people to remain at home, the AMA warned that residential aged care capacity has not always kept pace with population ageing and increasing care complexity. National residential aged care occupancy rates recovered to 89.9 per cent in 2025 but remain below pre-pandemic levels.

In evidence to the Senate inquiry into Support at Home last week, Ageing Australia chief Tom Symondson also expressed concern about access delays.

“While we have seen some welcome improvement in waiting times, we’re still a long way off the Royal Commission’s recommendation that nobody should wait more than a month to receive care,” he said.

“Currently, the median wait time is around 10 months which is clearly far too long.”

Mr Symondson said there are currently more than 100,000 people waiting for a package, another 100,000 waiting to be assessed, and more than 53,000 people receiving only 60 per cent of the value of their approved package.

The AMA report concludes that stronger aged care services, particularly in home care, residential care and discharge pathways, are essential to easing pressure on hospitals as Australia’s population continues to age.

It also warns that demand on public hospitals is likely to intensify, with people aged 65 and over already accounting for about 50 per cent of public hospital patient days, despite making up only around 17 per cent of the population.

“We cannot clear the hospital logjam while ignoring what happens beyond the hospital doors,” Dr McMullen said.

“Fixing aged care is essential to fixing our hospitals.”