The Department of Health has opened allocations for over 10,000 national residential aged care places for next FY this week, after widely advertising on a range of channels over the weekend.

This ACAR will also be the first to include 475 Short-Term Restorative places. “This new care type builds on the success of the existing Transition Care Programme, which assists older people to return home after a hospital stay,” Minister for Health and Aged Care Sussan Ley said.

10,940 places worth $678.3M were allocated in the 2015 ACAR, with the majority going to the private operators as it was thought they had easy access to capital.

But with the fallout from the collapse in Estia, Japara and Regis’ share prices hitting the private providers hard, the question is: will that happen this time?