Exclusive: Three key actions needed to get NDIS participants out of hospital

As people with disability languish in hospital despite being medically ready for discharge, a report being given to government will suggest three key actions to help provide more appropriate accommodation support.

A disability service provider hopes a meeting of the National Cabinet will provide answers to the crisis in pathways out of hospital for people with disability.

Premiers and the Prime Minister will on Friday receive a report from the Improving Care Pathways Taskforce, which deals with how to get NDIS participants who are medically fit to leave hospital, into appropriate disability care.

Ahead of the meeting on Friday morning, Dr Martin Laverty, CEO of Aruma, told Pro Bono News he hopes the report will spur action from Australia’s political leaders on the crisis engulfing the disability pathway out of hospital.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that thousands of NDIS participants are waiting an average of 160 days in hospital despite being medically ready for discharge.

NDIS minister Bill Shorten promised at the time to respond more quickly to people with disability once they were notified that they could be discharged from hospital, and to hire more NDIS staff in hospitals to fast-track discharge decisions.

The taskforce report will present options to discharge people with disability to appropriate disability care facilities and relieve the pressure on hospitals.

Aruma made three suggestions in its submission to the taskforce:

• Forecasting the demand for disability housing support for the number of people with disability who are likely to need transition from hospital to disability housing.
• Providing incentives to disability housing support providers to maintain agreed volumes of standby places where required, ready to receive people with disability when they are discharged from hospital.
• Expanding discharge coordination of pathways from hospital and aged care into disability housing.

“We’re not planning for where services need to be located. We don’t have sufficient standby capacity within the disability provider network. And only in recent years has there been the bolstering of discharge coordination,” Laverty said.

He applauded Shorten for boosting hospital liaison officers a fortnight ago, but said more needed to be done at both state and federal level.

A recent promise by the Victorian government to inject $39 million into a Pathways to Home program to help patients with disability transition to accommodation and support outside of hospital is also welcome, Laverty said.

“Every state and territory already has an approach [to discharge planning for NDIS participants],” Laverty said.

“The challenge is that over time we’ve seen a build up of pressure… because we don’t have the standby capacity in disability housing services to be able to receive the number of people currently occupying hospital beds. 

“All of these levers have to be pulled in conjunction… state and territory health services have to help contribute to the demand planning alongside the NDIA so that we know where demand exists. We then need incentives for available capacity to be in place. And that needs to be overlaid by that discharge planning to be working smoothly.

“And if you get all of that going, I’m really confident that you can see quick improvements in bringing down the number [of people in hospital].”
He said moving people with disability out of hospital is also a human rights issue.

Leaving people languishing in hospital beds will expose them to illness, Laverty said.

And with the NDIS’ core focus being on providing choice and control for people with disability, it is imperative to allow them the choice of where to live.

“The NDIS is ultimately a human rights commitment that says choice and control would have a person choose to live in a home rather than a hospital bed. We have to prevent illness by moving from a hospital, but also promote human rights by making sure every person with a disability chooses where they live. And that’s not going to be in a hospital bed,” Laverty said.

“I’m hopeful that the taskforce report will outline directions, but it’s for the state and territory premiers to also pledge what they can do to ensure that our hospitals and not the place in which people with disabilities have no choice but to stay in the absence of there being pathways to disability accommodation.”