St Bartholomew’s House: $30m federal boost for new East Perth aged care home

The Federal Government will contribute $30 million to building a new aged care facility in East Perth that will help homeless older West Australians get the care they need.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae will announce the grant during a two-day visit to Perth this week as the WA Government continues to pressure the Commonwealth to step up the number of home care packages on offer.

“Every older Western Australian deserves to age with dignity in a safe and caring place that they can be proud to call home,” Mr Rae said.

“Every new bed the Albanese Government funds will help take pressure off the hospital system in WA and transition more older Western Australians into more appropriate care sooner.”

The funding will cover about two-thirds of the cost of building a seven-storey, 80-bed facility. Operator St Bartholomew’s House will put up the other $16 million.

It will be built near St Bart’s existing James Watson residential aged care home, allowing the provider to expand its services to include older women with a history of homelessness starting from 2028.

St Bart’s chief executive officer Samantha Drury said the organisation offered all of its beds to vulnerable people, unlike traditional aged care operators.

“Many of our residents face premature ageing and complex health issues because of their experience of homelessness and this development will ensure they receive the specialised care and dignity they deserve,” she told The West.

Mr Rae’s visit west comes after Premier Roger Cook and his ministers responsible for health and aged care, Meredith Hammat and Simone McGurk, took their case for a funding boost to Canberra last month.

He’ll meet WA aged care providers and the State ministers.

Ms Hammat said they were looking forward to hearing what he had to say.

“We’ve had a number of really important opportunities to talk to the Federal Government about the fact we need them to do more in relation to aged care, both in terms of the home care packages, but also in terms of aged care beds as well,” she said.

An additional 20,000 in-home care packages will be fast-tracked ahead of the new system starting in November after the Federal Government caved to crossbench pressure.

However, it’s unclear how many each State will get, because they will be distributed according to a national waiting list.

Ms McGurk has been pushing to clear a backlog of 8000 people waiting for home-care packages in WA.

She was anticipating continuing “to work constructively with the Federal Government to support our ageing population” when she met Mr Rae on Wednesday.

“The State Government has been advocating to the Commonwealth for our aged care needs and we thank them for listening,” Ms McGurk told The West.

“We welcome the Federal Government’s announcement of an additional 80 beds to the WA aged care system and the focus on older West Australians at risk of homelessness. We know this is a cohort who need experienced, specialist services.”

State health ministers met in Perth last week to push the Commonwealth for more support after new statistics revealed more than 2400 older patients were taking up hospital beds in limbo waiting to access aged care.

The latest figures show there are 296 such patients in WA hospitals.

Health Minister Mark Butler said afterwards that the Commonwealth had “crammed a decade of reform” into three years.

WA senator Ellie Whiteaker said earlier in September that no one in the State Government had told her, as a Federal representative, what they wanted to see in terms of extra home packages for West Australians.