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Background
On Thursday 2 July 2026, Catholic Health Australia (CHA) convened a Parliamentary Roundtable on delayed discharge at Parliament House, Canberra.
Delayed discharge, also referred to as bed block or hospital exit block, describes situations where patients who are clinically ready to leave hospital remain in acute care because the downstream supports they need are unavailable, delayed, or poorly coordinated.
The discussion was structured through small-group table sessions organised around three zones of the care pathway (upstream prevention, intersection and coordination, and downstream capacity). This was followed by a plenary discussion, before closing with participant polling.
Participants emphasised that there is no single solution to delayed discharge. Instead, the discussion surfaced a range of short-, medium-, and longer-term options across prevention, coordination, and capacity. This reflects the complex and multi-faceted nature of the problem, alongside the need for reform to progress on several fronts.
The session brought together over 40 participants from Commonwealth and state government, parliament, clinical practice, aged care and hospital providers, consumer groups, health economics, and regulatory bodies, making it one of the most senior cross-sector gatherings on this issue to date.
The readout highlights that across every discussion theme, the same shape emerged. Delayed discharge is a whole-of-system challenge that no single actor can resolve alone (Theme 1); the durable answer lies upstream, in reablement and prevention, provided immediate fixes are built as bridges rather than destinations (Theme 2); behavioural goodwill will not hold unless the funding structures that reward cost-shifting are reformed alongside it (Theme 3); new ideas must be disciplined by stewardship of the complex system we already have, designed for place and for tomorrow as well as today (Theme 4); and consensus on direction, real as it is, still has to be earned into delivery through design, execution and trust (Theme 5).
