'Inhumane and unfair': NDIS clients stuck in hospital for months

Three NDIS clients stuck in Tasmanian hospital for months because they can't get extra home supports In short: Three men are stuck in a hospital in Tasmania because they can't secure extra NDIS support, a support service says. A disability advocate says it's an issue that could arise more often after changes to the NDIS were recently legislated. What's next? The federal government says it has "made good progress on hospital discharge, but challenges remain". Three men stuck in a Tasmanian hospital for months could go home if the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provided more assistance, a support service says. North West Support Services general manager Neal Rodwell told 936 ABC Hobart he was "gravely, gravely concerned" for their wellbeing. "It's inhumane," he said. "If the situation went on and on for more months, I think there's a very real risk that people would lose their lives." The men declined to be interviewed, but their plight is central to an ongoing argument between state and federal governments. Loading...Mr Rodwell has known two of them for more than 30 years, and the other for about 25 years, and, without relatives, said his service was "the closest thing they've got to family". He said they had been at the North West Regional Hospital for three months, four months and five months. "That's an incredibly long time," he said. Mr Rodwell said the men had been cleared by hospital allied health professionals, and while one had received approval for additional equipment, a request by all three for more hours of personal support through their NDIS plans had been rejected. The extra hours are required to enable the men to live safely in their homes. "It's an incredible loss for those people," he said. "They've lost their familiar home environments, they've lost their physical activity, they've lost stimulating social interaction with people who know them. "That simply leads to health regression again. They're deteriorating down that path. "They need to go home." 'Inhumane and unfair' Disability Advocacy Network Australia chief executive Emma Bennison said that it was a far too common scenario, and unacceptable that people with disability were "essentially institutionalised". "This is a really significant issue across the country, and it definitely needs urgent attention. People should not have to be stuck in a hospital just because they can't get the support they need," she said, "That is inhumane and unfair." The federal government recently made sweeping changes to the NDIS, which costs more than $50 billion annually, aiming to make it more sustainable and to crack down on fraud. The reforms are expected to save $37.8 billion over four years. "The warning I would sound is that we are going to see much more of this as the reforms roll out,"Ms Bennison said. Ms Bennison implored leaders to look beyond "dollars and cents". "I would like to see the humanity be front and centre in these conversations because I think we'd get very different outcomes if that was the case," she said. State health minister calls on Commonwealth to step up State governments are responsible for hospitals, while the NDIS and aged care sit with the Commonwealth, which has often been a source of tension between the two jurisdictions. "We have many, many more patients like this that are stranded in hospitals either because they're awaiting NDIS support or indeed aged care support," Tasmania's health minister Bridget Archer told 936 ABC Hobart. "We continue to care for them in the hospitals because people need to be cared for, but they no longer need to be in hospital; they are ready to go home." Ms Archer said that while the state would continue supporting these people, the federal government needed to do more. "What we are saying is this is your responsibility, and you can't just neglect it and push it to the state because that has real consequences,"she said. A spokesperson for NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said the government could not comment on individual circumstances. They said since coming into power, they had more than halved the number of days it took to discharge an NDIS patient, which sat at 15 days. “We have made good progress on hospital discharge, but challenges remain," the spokesperson said. They did not respond to a question about whether NDIS changes risked leaving some regional Australians behind. Loading...