Treasurer Jim Chalmers concedes Australia's aged care regime remains a mess, with new analysis showing seven out of 10 providers are posting financial losses.
Aged care centres lost $21.29 a bed a day on average over the September quarter compared to $7.30 over the same period 12 months earlier, according to a new survey.
The latest StewartBrown aged-care financial performance survey sector report, which analyses records from 1182 of Australia's more than 2500 nursing homes, found 70 per cent of aged care homes ran at a loss over the third quarter of 2022.
That was up from 56 per cent in the 2021 September quarter.
"Staffing shortages have been a major contributing factor, with much increased levels of overtime and agency staff being required to ensure that resident care needs are being properly met," said the report, published by The Australian.
Occupancy rates have dipped from 95 per cent in 2018 to 91 per cent in September 2022 and the report calls for extra funding and long-term reform to address the crisis.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Aged Care Minister Annika Wells and Health Minister Mark Butler were working to improve residential aged care after boosting funding 12 per cent for the 2022/23 financial year.
"Aged care has been a mess for some time and what we're trying to do in the Albanese government is to clean it up," he told ABC Radio National.
Mr Chalmers' first budget as treasurer in October set aside an extra $2.5 billion over the four years for aged care sector reforms, including better food for residents and increasing the on-site hours of registered nurses.
Aged and Community Care Providers Association chief executive Tom Symondson said the numbers equated to an annual loss of $1.4 billion for the industry.
"It's not chickenfeed. It's a very significant number," the head of the peak body told ABC Radio National on Friday.
"We know that aged care has been under huge pressure for years - decades, in fact. COVID has made it worse, but it was already struggling before that."
He declared the notion aged care was the "land of milk and honey" a myth, saying the days of facility owners reaping huge profits were long gone.
The crisis, Mr Symondson said, has been caused by the increased cost of delivering services combined with the failure of federal funding to keep pace in real terms.
"Last year, we received indexation of 1.7 per cent at a time where CPI is at six or seven (per cent) and wages are going up," he said.
