AI-written summary of reporting by ABC News Australia. No human editor reviewed this. AI can misread or omit facts — read the original, linked below.
ABSTRACT

A specialist outreach service operating across the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District managed 2,393 of 2,502 referred aged care residents — 95.6 per cent — within their residential facilities during the 2025–26 financial year, avoiding transfer to an emergency department, according to new figures released by the service.

ABC News Australia

Illawarra aged care outreach service kept 95.6% of residents out of hospital in 2025–26

Illawarra aged care outreach service kept 95.6% of residents out of hospital in 2025–26
Aug 25, 2026, 5:00 PM

A specialist outreach service operating across the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District managed 2,393 of 2,502 referred aged care residents — 95.6 per cent — within their residential facilities during the 2025–26 financial year, avoiding transfer to an emergency department, according to new figures released by the service.

Context

The Aged Care Outreach Service (ACOS) deploys geriatricians, nurses, and other clinicians into residential aged care facilities to deliver treatments — including intravenous antibiotics, fluids, and medication reviews — that would otherwise require hospital attendance. The service began in the Illawarra in July 2023 and expanded across the full Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District in September 2025.

Since June, the team has also taken on 124 cases already presenting at emergency departments and supported those residents back to aged care rather than admitting them to hospital.

The service operates alongside an emergency system under significant pressure. Bureau of Health Information figures show Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, and Milton Ulladulla hospitals recorded a combined 42,687 emergency department attendances between January and March. Wollongong alone recorded 18,200 presentations with a median stay of four hours and 48 minutes; Shoalhaven recorded 10,459. Fewer than half of patients at those hospitals started treatment on time.

The number of older patients remaining in Illawarra Shoalhaven hospitals while awaiting an aged care placement rose from 101 to 129 in the year to March, according to the source.

All Perspectives
Dr John McKenzie, co-director, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Division of Aged Care and Rehabilitation Medicine: McKenzie said that as a geriatrician he spends 'a lot of my time explaining to people that a hospital isn't a safe place for a frail, older adult,' describing it as 'a strange environment with bright lights and lots of noise' that is 'not the safest place if we can provide care in a quieter, homely, familiar environment.' He said the outreach service is 'just another arm reaching out into the communities to try and support older adults where they live,' and that 'seeing us is not a barrier to hospitalisation, it's an alternative.' On system pressure, he said: 'I think the exit block from hospital, the bed block as it were, is more complicated than simple demand and presentations, but I definitely think we are having an impact.' He added that extending the model to frail older people still living in their own homes 'would be the huge game changer for our population.'
Jenni Hutchins, chief executive, Warrigal: Hutchins said of one resident treated for cellulitis: 'What we knew about this resident … is they got very distressed at the thought of going to hospital, an unfamiliar environment.' She said the outreach solution 'meant that the resident stayed at home in a familiar environment and was able to have the same treatment as they would have received in hospital.'
Gaps & Unknowns
  • The source does not state the total number of residential aged care facilities or residents covered by the service across the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
  • The source does not state the funding source or budget for the Aged Care Outreach Service.
  • The source does not state clinical outcomes — such as recovery rates or readmission rates — for residents managed through the outreach service compared with those admitted to hospital.
  • The source does not state what proportion of the 2,502 referrals came from facilities added after the September 2025 expansion versus those covered since July 2023.
  • The source does not state the staffing size or composition of the outreach team.
  • The source does not indicate whether any formal plans or funding proposals exist to extend the model to community-dwelling older people, as McKenzie suggested.
Sources & Further Reading
  1. ABC News Australia — original

Read the original at ABC News Australia

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