The report’s aged care services section shows the average wait time for home care packages fell slightly in 2019-20 compared to the previous year.
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Access to approved level one packages took six months, down from seven months in 2018-19. But more than 14,000 people approved for high-needs level four packages still had a median wait time of 28 months for their services, compared with 34 months in 2018-19.
As of September, almost 100,000 senior Australians were waiting for access to their approved home care packages.
In NSW, 32,660 people were waiting for their services, while 27,094 were waiting in Victoria, according to a federal parliamentary community affairs committee question on notice response.
Across the country, 14,314 people were waiting for level four packages and 40,480 for level three.
Wait times for the packages have been an ongoing issue. In the three years to mid-2020, about 30,000 people died while waiting for services, a Senate inquiry heard last year.
In the October budget, the Morrison government announced $1.6 billion in funding for an extra 26,000 home care packages.
But of those packages, just 2000 were at level four. The funding also includes 8000 level three, 8000 level two and 10,000 level one packages.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds were over-represented for home care packages but under-represented in other types of services, the Productivity Commission report found.
For people moving into residential aged care in 2019-20, the report found 42.2 per cent entered care within three months of their approval.
The median time between approval and entering care was 148 days, or just over 21 weeks. That wait time was lower than the 152 days in 2018-19, but higher than the 121 in 2017-18.
Rachel Clun is a federal political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, covering health.
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