Funding delays keep NDIS participants in hospital months longer than necessary, report finds

Helen Milovanovic (right) with her sister Leila Boahene, who has had a stroke. Boahene has funding for accommodation but is currently stuck in an aged care facility. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

National disability insurance scheme participants are spending months longer than needed in hospital as they await funding packages from the agency that runs the scheme, a new report shows.

The report, from the Summer Foundation and La Trobe University, suggested that, while for many people this period was between one and three months, there was “substantial variation with some people spending months (up to two years) unnecessarily in hospital”.