5 days Ago By Glen Humphries
Senior citizens are taking up space in the region's hospitals because there is nowhere else for them to go, according to Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown. Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading In a Lord Mayoral Minute tabled at Monday night's meeting, Cr Brown focused on a shortage of residential aged care in Wollongong.
Her motion said this was "causing significant issues for the health system". "It was reported that on any given night during winter there are over 150 people essentially living in Illawarra hospitals because of a severe lack of aged care places," Cr Brown's motion stated. Cr Brown said it wasn't "a very good quality of life" for these seniors to be living in a four-bed hospital room rather than something more appropriate.
"While there are examples of senior housing developments (independent living units) moving through the planning system," Cr Brown said, "it is residential aged care beds that are needed to transition older patients who require ongoing care out of the hospital system and into appropriate alternative accommodation." She suggested a solution was to encourage developers to build this sort of facility. This could be accomplished via a bonus scheme, similar to the one already introduced by the state government to increase affordable housing stock.
In that case, developers who provide sufficient affordable housing are given a height "bonus" that allows them to build beyond whatever the maximum height is in that land zone. "The council through the general manager has already written to the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully about consideration of a scheme to incentivise investment in residential aged care," Cr Brown said. Her motion called for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation - a group representing the four councils in the region - to also throw its weight behind the move "I just thought to boost this effort, we should use the auspices of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation to join us in this advocacy to the NSW government so that collectively we can try and address this situation," she said.
The Lord Mayoral Minute was passed unanimously. I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide.
If I'm not writing, I'm reading. I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide.
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