IRT CEO Patrick Reid, Federal Aged Care Minister Anika Wells and Federal Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes at Marco Polo. Photo: Jen White.
Unanderra’s Marco Polo Aged Care Services will receive a $16.5 million funding boost to refurbish a disused building and open 48 new aged care beds.
Federal Aged Care Minister Anika Wells visited the centre on Thursday (5 September) to announce the funding for IRT, which merged with Marco Polo to operate the service last year.
IRT CEO Patrick Reid said the funding was a great outcome for the region, which has been suffering from an increasing lack of aged care accommodation.
About 150 older patients are currently in Wollongong Hospital waiting for a bed in aged care.
“For the Illawarra particularly at the moment, with our issues around bed block and people being unable to leave the hospital, particularly older Australians, this provides a pathway for them now to receive the care that they should be receiving,” Mr Reid said.
“It will also help to free up emergency care and other acute services in the hospitals.
“The site is not being used, so it’s really good repurposing of a site. Those 48 beds should start to become available towards the back half of 2025.”
The work at Marco Polo will include the complete renovation and refurbishment of the decommissioned building to deliver 48 new single ensuite rooms, 18 of which will be part of a new memory support wing.
Anika Wells and Alison Byrnes chat with residents at Marco Polo, including Patricia Garbutt. Photo: IRT.
Bedrooms and ensuites in the Cordeaux Lodge building, which now houses aged care residents, will also be upgraded and a new dementia wing added.
Ms Wells paid tribute to the work of IRT and said the $16.5 million funding was one of the biggest grants in the country under the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program.
“That is demonstrative of the need here in the region and it will be so good to have 48 more beds online as quickly as possible,” she said.
“An increase in the supply of residential aged care beds in the Illawarra is considered critical to assist in reducing the number of older patients in local hospitals awaiting discharge.”
Mr Reid said the increase in beds would require more staff.
“We’re really confident that we’ll have sufficient staff with the right skills, the right calibre and the right attitude to look after these beds,” he said.
“We’re actively recruiting all the time and certainly we are planning ahead to have these beds ready as early as we can.
“Without these beds, the hospital has severe challenges around acute, long-term care, so it’s something that we’re really focused on, and my team are driving it very hard.”
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