Shorten pledges to streamline the NDIS process

Public hospitals are stuck with “bureaucratic glue” that prevents healthy patients from being discharged, said the minister who oversees the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Across Australian hospitals, more than 1,400 NDIS participants have been waiting for discharge for an average of 160 days (equivalent to almost 6 months).

It costs taxpayers about $2,300 a day per patient, which Bill Shorten called “crazy.”

The minister said “nothing was prepared for him” about the state of the NDIS he would inherit after Labor’s victory in May’s federal elections.

“The previous administration, honestly, just ignored this issue (and) I’m really embarrassed because this is a real issue and has real consequences,” he told ABC Radio on Monday. told Melbourne.

“Hospitals are designed to treat sick people, but if they are stable, they would rather stay at home or in suitable special accommodation than a very expensive hospital bed, which increases the risk of other illnesses. would be good.”

Bureaucratic decision-making appears to be slowing the patient discharge process rather than the lack of adequate accommodation options.

He said decisions about patients were made serially rather than simultaneously, which was not common knowledge.

“Between diligent actions…a huge pot of bureaucratic glue that seems to hold everything back, somewhere between those efforts and the results, within the system from hospitals to individuals to disability institutions. There seems to be,” he said.

“It’s a ubiquitous problem.”

Funding NDIS is not the only solution, but rather fixes inefficient processes and improves transparency, Shorten said.

He said funding community mental health and making sure schools support students with additional needs are also part of the solution.

“In some cases, the answers are not completely difficult. I think it takes political will to find and implement the answers,” he said.