$115m released to unlock stalled aged care beds in four hotspots

The funding, to be delivered through the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program (ACCAP), will be directed to Adelaide, the Illawarra, Perth and the Hunter – areas the government has identified as ‘hotspots’ where shortages of residential places are contributing to pressure across the health system.

Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing Mark Butler said the government is prioritising the increased supply of beds and capacity for the country’s aged care systems.

“We know we face a big challenge in increasing bed capacity across our health and aged care systems to meet growing demand, and that is why we’re investing so strongly to increase supply as quickly as possible,” he said.

“Our government has already invested $1 billion in expanding bed capacity in the aged care system and this latest round of funding will increase supply in areas that need it most, like Adelaide.”

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae said the funding will prioritise projects that are close to ‘shovel‑ready’, including expansions of existing facilities.

“This announcement is the culmination of our methodical work to identify areas where bed capacity is most urgently needed, and we’re moving quickly to fix it,” he said.

Providers will have six weeks to put forward projects that will result in new residential aged care beds within two years.

Speaking to ABC Radio Adelaide, Minister Rae said the city’s inclusion as a hotspot reflected its ageing population and “stagnant pipeline of projects”.

The funding, he said, is designed to “unlock these projects and to accelerate the delivery of these beds”.

In the Illawarra, Minister Rae told the ABC that the region had experienced “a bit of a blockage when it comes to getting new projects through the pipeline.”

“Some of it has been blockage at the planning level, but of course, some of it has been considerations around essentially the costs of those projects,” he said.

In Perth, Minister Rae told ABC Radio that the region had suffered from “a cycle of underinvestment” despite rising demand.

“What we’re looking at are the types of projects where a lot of work has already been done in many cases, and perhaps they are still maybe a few million short of being a viable project,” he said.

“For too long, we’ve seen underinvestment in some key hotspots even though we’ve had rising demand, and metropolitan Perth is one of those four key hotspots that we’ve identified across the country.”

South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton said the funding is needed to reduce the aged care bed block.

“The federal government’s important investment will complement the Malinauskas Government’s $250-million interest-free loans policy for providers to build new aged care centres, and our plan to develop a new 600-bed aged care precinct at the old Women’s and Children’s Hospital,” Minister Picton said.

The federal government says further ACCAP rounds will open later this year, with a focus on regional and rural areas.

EOI documentation and participation instructions will be available on GrantConnect.