An elderly woman who broke her neck and three other bones had to permanently move 100km from her family and friends to receive the care she desperately needed.
Draginia Johnstone’s 88-year-old mother spent 35 days in a Gladstone hospital, north of Brisbane, after she fell earlier this year.
Ms Johnstone’s mother had broken her neck, hip, pelvis and back and upon her discharge from hospital was told she would need to move into an aged-care centre.
In Gladstone, however, there were no beds available in any of the town’s four centres and the closest one she could get into was 121km away in Biloela.
Even then, the only way Ms Johnstone could secure her mother a bed was to sell the 88-year-old’s home to afford the $400,000 down payment for it.
Gladstone is a town of around 45,000 people and Ms Johnstone said its availability issues regarding aged care centres have been terrible for years.
Not only did her mother have to spend years on a waiting list before they eventually locked in the Biloela centre, but Ms Johnstone’s father suffered the same fate 20 years earlier.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has joined forces with other state and territory leaders in an attempt to force the federal government to increase public hospital funding.
Draginia Johnstone’s 88-year-old mother had to move 121km from Gladstone to Biloela, in Queensland, because her town did not have any spaces in its aged care facilities
Ms Johnstone said Gladstone is currently building a new aged care centre but that the construction process had been dragging on.
‘We’ve got an ageing population, we’ve been aware of this for quite some time,’ she told the Courier Mail.
‘(The government has been) drumming it into us – we’ve got to work towards 67 – yet now you guys are saying, “oh, hang on a minute, we forgot to put some extra nursing homes in for this generation”.
‘This is how our government is making our elderly finish their life off and it is sickening to me.’
Ms Johnstone’s father also had to make the move from Gladstone to Biloela after falling ill himself in 2005.
The grieving daughter said she has given up all hope that the situation will get better and is now convinced that ‘nothing has changed’.
She even admitted to fearing for her own future as she and her siblings are all in their 60s and might end up in a similar situation one day.
Their only solution is to potentially buy land, build a home and hire a live-in nurse, Ms Johnstone said.
Premier David Crisafulli is urging the federal government to increase state and territory budgets for these facilities
Despite a meeting between the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders in Canberra this week, a deal for increased funding is yet to be made
Mr Crisafulli joined other premiers in Canberra to discuss increasing funding so states and territories can resolve the issue of limited aged care centres.
The Queensland premier argued it was the responsibility of the Commonwealth to provide it and that there was enough money to do so.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has proven an obstacle in these discussions however as he has urged leaders to curb unsustainable growth regarding increased funding.
Previously, a funding share agreement of 42.5 per cent by 2030 and 45 per cent by 2035 had been agreed to in 2023.
If no commitment is finalised, the deal will revert to another one-year rollover, leaving the issue of bed availabilities unresolved.
In Queensland, there are currently more than 1,100 medically fit people stuck in hospital as ‘long-stay patients’, unable to be discharged because there is no room for them in aged care centres or NDIS accommodation.