A new plan to stop NDIS participants languishing for months in hospital has been welcomed by the ACT government, as figures show more than a dozen beds in Canberra are being taken up by patients who are fit to leave.
Federal NDIS Minister Bill Shorten this week outlined a new approach to speed up discharge rates for participants stuck in public hospitals across Australia, which include new time targets and entrusting agency staff to make faster decisions.
There were more than 1380 participants confined to hospital beds despite being medically cleared to leave as of August 3, figures presented to disability ministers and seen by The Canberra Times showed.
A total of 18 of those patients are in Canberra hospitals.
The National Disability Insurance Agency's delays in processing paperwork and a lack of suitable housing for participants to return to has been blamed for the so-called "bed block", which Mr Shorten estimated was costing Australian taxpayers $3 million per night - or $1 billion per year.
Under the new plan to speed up discharge rates, the agency will contact an NDIS participant within four days of being notified about their admission to hospital.
A hospital discharge plan would then need to be approved within 30 days.
The agency is deploying a team of special hospital liaison officers and discharge staff to help the states and territories, with those staff being entrusted with making quicker decisions.
ACT Minister for Disability Emma Davidson said the new approach would make a "real difference" in Canberra, where she said red tape was the major cause of the problem.
She said streamlining the decision-making process could help avoid a repeat of cases like the one involving an unnamed Canberra NDIS participant, who was unable to leave hospital until the agency signed off on a wheelchair and a special cushion.
"The NDIA were fine with approving the wheelchair, but didn't want to approve the cushion that goes on it. Without it [the cushion] she can't use it safely and that means she is stuck in hospital," Ms Davidson said.
"The cushion itself costs less than one extra day in hospital."
"If the right person at the NDIA had the delegation to just say, 'Of course, just get the cushion', then she can go home tomorrow."
The Canberra Times earlier this year reported on the case of David Harkness, who has been stuck in hospital since last September after having his right leg amputated.
Mr Harkness is expected to return home in the coming weeks after modifications to his house, which took months for the NDIA to approve, are finished.
Given hospital release can be contingent on access to expensive equipment, Ms Davidson is pushing for governments to consider an equipment loan scheme for NDIS participants similar to one already in place in the ACT.
Under the ACT's CAYPELS program, children aged 16 and under can hire equipment including wheelchairs and walking frames.
The idea of a loan scheme was discussed at a meeting of disability ministers in Canberra earlier this month.
Leading advocacy group Summer Foundation is among a broad coalition of housing, health and disability organisations which have been campaigning to end the bureaucratic delays blamed for keeping NDIS participants in hospital or forcing them into aged care.
Summer Foundation chief executive Di Winkler said the 30-day target for putting a hospital discharge plan in place was achievable, given the aged care system managed to assess cases within three days.
Dr Winkler said a national workforce of skilled support workers was now needed to help patients navigate the complex transition out of hospital and into housing.
She also called for greater use of an estimated 3000 disability housing properties sitting vacant around Australia, arguing that even if those homes didn't offer a long-term solution then they were a far better option for participants than remaining in hospital.
