WA welcomes 59 new beds but more needed

The Western Australian government has dedicated an additional $24.2 million in funding through the Winter Strategy and the Time to Think program to fund 59 extra beds.

This brings the total number of Time to Think beds to 146 across multiple homes.

The Time to Think program provides older people with access to short-term accommodation in a homelike aged care setting so they can have time to consider longer-term care options and transition to their new residence with dignity.

Of the additional beds, 24 will be at the Lady McCusker Home in Duncraig, 18 at the Lefroy Care Centre in Bull Creek, 10 in the Thomas Scott Hostel in Camillo and seven at the Mosman Park Care Centre in Mosman Park.

In the year since its inception, the Time to Think program has assisted more than 450 people and freed up 14,000 hospital bed days.

WA Aged Care and Seniors Minister Simone McGurk said the expansion means “even more older Western Australians and their families can benefit from the time, space, and assistance they need to make informed decisions about their future care.”

“By working closely with aged care providers and the Commonwealth, we are strengthening aged care pathways and tailored support for older Western Australians,” she said.

The WA government also introduced the $100 million Low Interest Loan Scheme in January 2026, to encourage aged care investment.

WA occupancy higher than national average

News of the additional beds follows the release of the EY Parthenon Supply & Demand Analysis of Residential Aged Care in WA report. It shows WA will need an additional 1,600–2,700 operational beds by 2030 to meet demand.

Assuming 100-bed configurations, this would require the construction of 16–27 new homes.

But as noted in the market analysis, WA has only seen an extra 400 beds since 2020, with 2025 being the first time the number of beds declined in at least a decade.

Completed on 13 March but published in mid-May 2026, the analysis of the WA aged care market found demand for residential aged care has grown by an estimated 24 per cent in the last decade – reaching 18,500 residents in the 2025 financial year.

This demand has grown despite a declining proportion of older people entering residential aged care, instead receiving care at home for longer.

The report noted that providers reported occupancy levels of over 95 per cent – the highest in the country.

This figure is at odds with Commonwealth datasets which report occupancy levels of around 92 per cent, with the report indicating this could be from the Commonwealth datasets including approved but not operational beds.

The difference between the datasets is more than 700 beds.

The report found these beds are offline due to workforce constraints, redevelopment activity and unsaleable rooms.

The aged care bed shortage is not unique to WA, with New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland also grappling with low availability and increasing rates of delayed discharge.

EY Parthenon only forecast demand for residential aged care beds to 2030, due to the high level of uncertainty surrounding the impact of the Support at Home reforms on demand.

Such impact will need to be monitored closely by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the report said, but the known impacts formed part of the methodology used to forecast the potential supply gap up to 2030.

Construction costs a major barrier

Inhibitive construction costs were listed among the barriers to building more beds.

An aged care bed is estimated to cost around $650,000 – up 47 per cent from June 2020 – but some planned new facilities quote an average cost of $700,000-$1 million per bed.

Meanwhile, planned expansions of existing facilities quote an average cost of $300,000–$500,000 per bed, reflecting the variability in location and quality of beds.

Despite the difficulties, the report found providers indicated planned investment of approximately 1,200 new beds to be operational between 2027–2030. Most are for the greater Perth area – where occupancy exceeds 95 per cent.

Read the full report here.

View the WA government’s Winter Strategy here.