Aged care placement delays leave 1000s in hospital, ministers warn

State and territory health ministers have lobbied their federal counterpart, Mark Butler, to take “immediate” action on aged care bed block, with more than 3600 patients languishing in state hospitals across Australia.

Bed block occurs when a patient has been cleared for discharge but is forced to continue to occupy a hospital bed because there are no federally funded aged care or NDIS placements available.

State and territory health ministers used Friday’s health ministers’ meeting to demand Mr Butler set up more Support at Home packages to facilitate the return of these patients to home settings.

The federal government has committed $1.7bn in the May budget to build 5000 more aged care beds, though NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has warned this could “take some time”.

“I am concerned the prevalence of bed block is accelerating and is far beyond sustainable,” he said in a statement.

“We will work constructively with the Commonwealth including on issues such as seeing a more immediate response to this crisis, including the delivery of more Commonwealth Support at Home packages.”

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said “vulnerable patients” needed to be moved out of the state’s “busy, noisy hospitals and into more appropriate settings so they can get the care they deserve”.

SA Health Minister Blair Boyer explained that the number of aged care patients waiting for a bed was about the same as the capacity of one of the state’s largest metro hospitals.

“If we were able to get them into an aged care bed, it would free up a whole hospital so we could treat those patients that need it,” Mr Boyer said.

“This is putting a huge demand on our healthcare system, as the new beds we’ve added to the system are being taking up by aged care patients.”

The number of Australians stranded in hospitals waiting for aged care placements rose from 2700 in mid 2025 to more than 3600 in mid 2026.

This year, Queensland had the highest number of patients at 1272, followed by NSW at 1027, South Australia at 476, WA at 423, Victoria at 302, Tasmania at 78 and ACT at 80.

Bed block has placed immense pressure on public hospital systems already under strain, with state leaders insisting these systems were not designed as “alternatives or substitutes to aged care facilities”.

NDIS applications take about 56 days to be approved, while aged care assessments can take up to 11 months for standard applications.

In NSW, the burden of discharge delays has prompted a six-month inquiry by the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission to find ways to relieve pressure on hospitals.

It will assess the cost and impact of the almost 1000 patients stranded in hospitals across the state, as of April, while awaiting Commonwealth government aged care placements.

Alongside the investigation, a joint hospital discharge taskforce is set to be co-led by the federal and NSW governments to improve outcomes for patients following an agreement at a health ministers’ meeting earlier this year.