October 29, 2026 — 5:00am
David Witt is starting to forget what’s beyond the four walls of his hospital room.
The once-exuberant comedy writer, known for the children’s television hits Blinky Bill and The Ferals, has spent almost four months in the Royal North Shore Hospital after arriving with pneumonia in July.
“I’m spending most of my life sitting in this chair, in this corner,” Witt said.
The 74-year-old is among 1100 other older patients stuck in NSW hospitals, medically ready to leave, but who do not have an aged care placement to be discharged to – a phenomenon known as bed block.
Patients waiting in emergency departments or on ambulance stretchers cannot be admitted to full wards, where the beds are occupied by patients who, like Witt, no longer need hospital care and risk catching hospital-acquired infections every day they remain there.
Witt’s wife, Carol, said she never imagined securing support for her husband would be so difficult. Witt has Parkinson’s disease, requires 24-hour care and is tube-fed.
“There are no beds available anywhere unless you have a spare $800,000 to get your name much higher than his on the waiting lists,” Carol said, adding Witt was reliant on a government-funded concessional place.
“We’ve had our entire family from Sydney, Perth, and even David’s sister from Minnesota calling nursing homes for months, trying to get him a place,” she said.
“The longer he just sits [in hospital] ... the frailer he becomes, and his health deteriorates more and more. The quality of what could be his last year of life is horrible and heartbreaking. The system is beyond broken.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the aged care bed block crisis was arguably the biggest challenge facing the state’s health system.
“People are left languishing in hospital beds that they shouldn’t be in ... but we simply have no other place for them,” Park said.
At last count in June, there were 34 stranded patients within Royal North Shore Hospital awaiting an NDIS or aged care spot, and 96 across Northern Sydney Local Health District.
“That’s not fair on them as individual patients, it’s not fair on their families, and it’s certainly not fair on our healthcare staff … who then have to deal with significant pressures of trying to find beds for people who need acute hospital care,” Park said.
When ward beds are at capacity, emergency department staff have no choice but to treat acute conditions in hallways and waiting rooms.
If current trends continue, the number of stranded aged care patients could be close to 1700 by June 2027, according to NSW Health projections.
Australian Medical Association NSW president Dr Fred Betros said this equated to about one in eight hospital beds that would otherwise be available for patients in emergency departments.
“That’s an enormous strain on a hospital system that already isn’t coping,” Betros said.
He said long-term hospital stays were distressing for patients in busy and disorientating units, which could exacerbate their conditions and put them at risk of antibiotic-resistant secondary infections.
“In an aged care facility, you would hopefully have a quieter, more controlled and peaceful experience,” with specialised care and activities, Betros said.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler faced growing pressure from state and territory health leaders to increase access to aged care places and promised an additional 5000 aged care beds per year, funded by cuts to the health insurance rebate for over-65s.
The plan was defeated in the Senate this month after the Coalition, the Greens and One Nation scrapped the proposal, prompting Butler to reintroduce the legislation, which is now before the House of Representatives.
Older Persons Advocacy Network policy director Samantha Edmonds said there was an urgent need to increase aged care beds and home care packages called Support at Home.
“We’re ... concerned people are pushed into residential [care] when they really just need support at home,” she said.
Excessive queue times for Support at Home meant that many elderly people approved for the program deteriorated as they waited for access, until they had no choice but to move into residential aged care.
An Albanese government spokesperson said more than $41 billion was spent on aged care services last financial year – an increase of $22 billion since 2018-19.
“We’ve restored dignity to aged care by putting a registered nurse in every aged care home, increasing care minutes every single day for residents and lifting award wages for aged care workers,” the spokesperson said.
Witt was due to be discharged to an aged care facility on Thursday. He said he was looking forward to the social opportunities it would afford him.
The nurses on the ward who had grown to know him well said they were sad to see him go.
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Source: The Sydney Morning Herald · Rachel Rasker
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