The future of residential aged care in Ardrossan is in doubt as the local hospital tackles challenges which forced it to close its accident and emergency, and acute care.

Speaking at the Ardrossan Community Hospital annual general meeting on Tuesday, November 21, board chairperson Margaret Tomsen said the hospital’s ability to provide sustainable aged care was threatened by several factors.

This followed the hospital’s decision to close its accident and emergency and acute services as of 9am on Monday, November 13 until further notice, due to circumstances beyond the hospital’s control.

Speaking at the AGM, which attracted about 30 people, Mrs Tomsen said those circumstances included financial losses, inability to attract and retain nurses, and the lack of local doctors.

“We also reluctantly realised our ability to provide sustainable aged care was doubtful and it was unlikely any other private provider would be interested in taking over these services,” she said.

She said threats to aged care at ACH include onerous federal government requirements, the worldwide shortage of nurses, the shift in federal funding to at-home care packages, and the increasingly complex requirements of people going into residential aged care.

“The increasing expectations of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission are making it virtually impossible for small, regional facilities such as ours to continue to operate,” she said.

“Aged care occupancy rates dropped during Covid and never fully recovered to 100 per cent.

“There’s a large demand for high care beds but these would necessitate specially trained staff and possibly a secure unit.”

ACH currently has 29 aged care residents and Mrs Tomsen said it is the priority of the board and management to ensure they are looked after.

She said the hospital cannot continue supplying necessary health services on its own and nominal subsidies from any government are no longer the answer.

The board has been negotiating with consultants appointed by the state government, the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network, SA Health, Health Minister Chris Picton and Narungga MP Fraser Ellis, who attended the AGM.

“We had hoped to retain aged care and run it at a profit and that SA Health would take over A&E and acute care here in this hospital,” Mrs Tomsen said.

Earlier in the year, she said, the board had been hopeful it could form a private/public partnership with SA Health.

That optimism was boosted in May when an independent consultant, funded by SA Health, visited and was confident such a model could deliver improved health services.

“We continued operating for several months in the expectation that some, if not all, of the consultant’s recommendations would be accepted, and we conveyed this positivity at the public information meeting (in Ardrossan) in May,” Mrs Tomsen said.

“To our dismay, when we eventually met with representatives from YNLHN, it immediately became obvious the partnership we’d anticipated was not going to eventuate, and that we had to totally reconsider our options.

“We were a bit blindsided.

“We have assurances our community won’t be abandoned, that there will be health facilities and services in Ardrossan but the delivery of them and the precise scope of them will have to change.

“We may end up as the landlord of the facility and SA Health will run it.”

Some community members attending the meeting criticised the board for making major decisions without further consultation with the community, such as another public meeting.

In response, board member Craig Farrow said the board had a duty to make decisions to minimise financial losses and look after the hospital’s staff and residents.

“We had the power to make the decisions that we made,” he said.

“We all deeply don’t like where it’s at.”

This article appeared in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 28 November 2023.