By Angus Thomson

Copyright theage

The number accounts for more than 5 per cent of the 21,937 overnight hospital beds across the state.

The issue is particularly acute in Park’s own electorate of Keira, where a recent analysis found up to 20 per cent of bed days in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District were occupied by aged care residents due to an estimated shortage of more than 1000 residential care places.

The taskforce tracked 1133 patients heading to aged care who ended up in hospital, finding the vast majority (94 per cent) first arrived at hospital through the emergency department.

They spent an average of 66 days in hospital. In one case a patient spent 410 days waiting for a place in aged care.