An 86-year-old with terminal lung and heart problems has applied to end his own life because of blown-out wait times for federal government assistance.
Cyril Tooze is one of 70,000 elderly Australians left waiting to receive at-home aged care.
“The healthcare situation is just in crisis in this country,” he said.
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He was approved for the highest level of home care assistance under the federal government’s MyAgedCare scheme in January, only to be told he’d have to wait up to nine months.
“Now, we’ve gone past 10 months and still no package,” he said.
Rather than wait in the pain, he applied to end his own life using South Australia’s voluntary assisted dying scheme.
“There is no hope,” he said.
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“I don’t want to live my life laying in a bed, waiting for something to happen.”
Tooze was granted temporary home aged care assistance after going public today but is continuing to tell his story in the hope it will force the federal government to urgently invest in the sector.
His local MP, Rebekha Sharkie, says waiting times for home support have more than doubled since 2022.
“It’s shameful,” she said.
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“If this story doesn’t make the government act and sit up and take notice and put this investment in immediately, I don’t know what will…
“We were looking at one to three months’ wait, which was long enough. Now, 15 months is what’s on the government website.”
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells told 9News today she wouldn’t speak about specific cases.
“They have to do something and something quickly,” Tooze said.
“People are dying.”
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