Aged care in the home improves lives and saves money. So why are Australians being made to wait?

Current government support for home care allocates funding to people based on a four-tier level of need. That system is set to be reformed under Labor’s proposed new aged care act. Photograph: Bloom Productions/Getty Images

Twenty years ago, Patrick Evans beat cancer. Now aged 76, the repercussions of the radiation treatment that helped him are setting in.

“He has very serious aspiration and that causes him pneumonia and that lands him in hospital on a regular basis,” his wife, Inda, said. “He had a very bad episode last year and was basically in a life or death situation.”