A woman frustrated by long delays in getting home help for her 91-year-old mother has accused the federal government of effectively waiting for elderly people to die.
Ruth Harris' mother had already been waiting a year for a home care package when she received a health department letter last November telling her she had moved up in the queue.
Instead of offering Joyce Edwards the support she needed to continue living in her Adelaide home, the letter flagged another three-month wait.
Ms Harris told the government's My Aged Care exactly what she thought about making people who were already very elderly wait 12 months for support.
"I think I said to them 'you're waiting for them to die'," she told the aged care royal commission on Thursday.
Ms Harris repeatedly asked My Aged Care about the delays, only to be told again and again her mother had to wait three-to-six months for the level of home care she required.
Ms Edwards waited 13 months for a home care package, by which time she had moved into residential care.
Ms Harris said trying to deal with My Aged Care, the government's one stop shop for aged care services, was "just horrendous".
"The way that you have to navigate your way through the system is very difficult," she told the Adelaide hearing.
She dismissed My Aged Care as basically a call centre operated by staff reading from a screen who did not necessarily know the needs of people requiring aged care services.
"I did feel that when I phoned My Aged Care that no one was listening, basically."
Queensland woman Rita Kersnovske suffered a fall in September but has so far been refused even an assessment for home care, despite her doctor's advocacy.
The 80-year-old said she told My Aged Care it was too painful to even get to her son's house next door for meals.
"I actually ended the phone call by saying 'well I'll just sit here and starve to death'," she told the royal commission via videolink from her home town of Gympie.
"I've just got no help whatever from My Aged Care."
About 92,000 people were accessing home care packages in June 2018 but the royal commission heard there were currently 128,500 people either on the waiting list or not receiving their approved level of care.
Professor Hal Swerissen from the Grattan Institute said the government's announcement of an additional 20,000 home care packages was welcome but was not enough and the way funding was provided needed reform.
