Canberrans have faced waiting times more than double the national average to get an aged care assessment, but the federal and ACT governments are passing the buck back and forth.
The ACT had an average wait time of 75 days for aged care assessments earlier this year, compared with 35 days nationally.
ACT senator David Pocock has slammed the situation as "unacceptable" and also said he was receiving conflicting information from the territory and federal government as to the reasons why.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the territory had been seeking additional resources for years but federal bureaucrats have told an inquiry the territory had not hired for all the positions it was funded for.
The aged care assessment program is funded by the Commonwealth and in the ACT is managed by Canberra Health Services.
In a letter to Senator Pocock, seen by The Canberra Times, Ms Stephen-Smith said there had been a significant increase in the number of referrals for aged care assessments from just under 3000 in 2017-28 to 4440 in 2022-23.
She said the ACT also conducted assessments for NSW residents who were in Canberra hospitals and needed to be assessed as part of their care.
Ms Stephen-Smith said, in the letter, the territory had been requesting additional funding for aged care assessors.
"Despite several requests to the Australian government over recent years for additional funding to increase the number of assessors, no additional resources have been provided," she wrote in the letter.
Senator Pocock quoted this part of the letter to health officials in a hearing last week but was told the ACT had fewer people allocated to assessments than what they were funded for.
Department of Health and Aged Care deputy secretary for ageing and aged care Michael Lye said: "[The ACT] had fewer people allocated to do assessments than they were funded for.
"They acknowledged that and we were working with them to improve that. So it's not quite consistent with the answer you've been given from the ACT government."
But a Canberra Health Services spokesman said the ACT had fully met the requirements. He said the ACT had been funded for 12.8 full-time equivalent positions, including 8.34 assessors with the remaining roles related to delegation approvals, support plan reviews and care coordination.
"The ACT has been fully recruited within this funding envelope," the spokesman said.
"There is a requirement that assessments and delegation approvals are not undertaken by the same person."
The ACT government has also funded the temporary employment of assessors to help with the workload.
To improve the ACT's waiting times, there is a remediation plan in place which includes the streamlining of administrative practices, extra support for assessors and flexible overtime arrangements.
A spokeswoman for Ms Stephen-Smith said the ACT government had been raising the issue for a number of years, including under the former federal coalition government.
"The ACT government is committed to managing the workload of the aged care assessments team and to ensuring access to aged care services is not delayed unnecessarily due to delays in the assessment process," she said.
Officials told an inquiry last week the remediation plan had resulted in improvements. There were 750 people on the waitlist a few months ago who had been waiting more than 75 days but this has nearly halved to 380.
Senator Pocock said he had been pursuing the matter for nearly a year but the improvements had not been sufficient.
"It is unacceptable for people in the ACT to be waiting so much longer than other Australians for aged care assessments," he said.
"I'm also getting conflicting information from the federal and ACT governments which isn't helping anyone and won't fix the issue for Canberrans."
Senator Pocock said it was a serious issue and affected the health and independence of older people.
He said the longer somebody waited for an assessment the more likely they would end up in hospital or in residential aged care before they need to.
He pointed to the fact one-third of assessments in the territory were done in hospital compared to 25 per cent nationally.
"The data clearly shows that Canberrans are more likely to have their assessments in hospital when their situation has become urgent and dangerous," Senator Pocock said.
"I would urge both governments to sort this out as an urgent priority. Our seniors deserve access to support at home, and that starts with reliable and timely assessment service."
