Use of short stay beds by nursing home applicants waiting for placement

Implementation of the recent decision of the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health to set a uniform target ratio of 40 extensive care Nursing Home beds per 1000 persons aged 70 and over will result in substantial decreases in the availability of Nursing Home places in many Australian regions. The catchment area of the Bundoora Extended Care Assessment Team currently has a Nursing Home bed to population ratio which is very close to this target. It may serve as a model for the conditions likely to prevail when this target ratio is achieved in other Australian regions. Data from a cohort of 320 Nursing Home applicants from this catchment area assessed by the team suggests that at this level of Nursing Home bed provision, use of short stay institutional beds by applicants awaiting placement is substantial. Figures are provided which permit the estimation of short stay institutional bed use expected from regional populations where the level of nursing home bed provision is close to the CDCSH target.