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How to Deal with NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) Support Coordinators Rejecting Nursing Assessments Putting Lives at Risk!

If you want to know how to deal with NDIS support coordinators that can’t advocate for you, especially when you or your loved one have a ventilator, tracheostomy, or need Home TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition), or have BIPAP (Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure), CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) ventilation, or have a tracheostomy without ventilation, stay tuned! I’ve got news for you.

So, obviously, we are operating in the NDIS space, but also TAC, DVA, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ in Queensland, but obviously, we’re dealing with a lot of NDIS participants.

By the way, my name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com. So, we’re dealing with a lot of NDIS participants that have conditions such as cerebral palsy, Rett syndrome, motor neurone disease, but also spinal injuries, and all of them are heavily NDIS funded for 24-hour critical care nurses because they have critical care nursing needs. Otherwise, those clients would be in intensive care, or if they didn’t have the critical care nurse, they would actually be passing away.

So, this week, I had a phone call from a NDIS support coordinator, and we’ve been asked to do a nursing assessment about 6 months ago for a very vulnerable client with cerebral palsy. The client is known to have an unstable airway, recurring ICU admissions for aspiration pneumonia, and the client has a long-standing medical history of cerebral palsy, Moyamoya disease, multiple strokes, quadriplegic cerebral palsy, epilepsy, dysphagia, recurrent aspiration, aspiration pneumonia with intensive care admissions, scarring of the right lung, kyphoscoliosis, muscle contractures, and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, also known as a PEG tube, is known for being a high risk for pressure injuries.

The client initially came to us asking for a NDIS nursing assessment, knowing full well that support workers and the help of her family will not keep this client out of hospital predictably, which is why they were coming to us for a NDIS nursing assessment. So, the nursing assessment was done, by the way, by an independent clinical nurse consultant with a critical care nursing and legal nurse consulting background. The nursing assessment, evidently, was recommended for a 24-hour nursing care with critical care nurses for the reasons that I just mentioned.

So, what normally happens is those reports go to the NDIS and the NDIS often rejects the request for 24 hour nursing care. But with the right level of advocacy, we always get the funding for our clients because that’s part of what we do, otherwise, we wouldn’t be in business. We wouldn’t be employing over 100 critical care nurses in the community if the funding wasn’t there through the NDIS or other funding bodies.

So, to come back to the phone call that I had from the NDIS support coordinator this week. She calls me up and she said, “Look, thank you for the nursing assessment. But I’m wondering whether the writer (the critical care nurse) can change the recommendations from 24-hour critical care nurses a day to 1 hour of a registered nurse a day because the NDIS won’t fund the 24-hour nursing care.” I said to her, “With all respect, this is a report from a professional that is AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) registered. Your job as NDIS support coordinator is to advocate for your client, depending on the reports that you get from a professional.”

Now, the problem with many NDIS support coordinators is that there’s no regulation who can become a NDIS support coordinator. Anyone can become a NDIS support coordinator. There are no selection criteria, really. With all respect, they might have worked in a supermarket the week before, stocking shelves, with all respect, and now they’re putting the label on them, “support coordinator.” That is really dangerous, especially when we’re dealing with super vulnerable clients on ventilation, tracheostomy, BIPAP, CPAP ventilation, and so forth.

Basically, patients otherwise would be in intensive care, which for this lady has been the case, or are at risk of medical emergencies and therefore are at risk of dying. So, I explained to her that her job is to advocate for the client and that the NDIS is not the regulatory body, but AHPRA is. So, what do I mean by that, all registered nurses are AHPRA registered, and AHPRA sets the guidelines. So that means, a registered nurse’s skill is to make a professional assessment what nursing care a client or a patient need, that is part of their skill. If a registered nurse would make up things that are not accurate, they could lose their registration. So why would a registered nurse or a doctor or any health practitioner for that matter, make up things that are not true, because their registration could be at stake.

The problem with the NDIS and NDIS support coordinators is that the NDIS wants to undermine registered nurses and the AHPRA registration. They also want to undermine AHPRA by not funding what is clinically necessary.

So, there’s two things that we’ve done in the meantime. Number one, we’ve always successfully advocated for our clients to get the funding, because as health professionals, we have the skills and the knowledge and know-how to do so, that’s one thing we’ve done. We also know how to engage NDIS support coordinators if they are potentially lacking the insights or the skills to advocate for the right level of funding. The other thing that I said to the NDIS support coordinator, I said, “Well, you need to either challenge the plan review or you need to take this case to the NDIS tribunal.”

Many cases have been turned around there where the NDIS tribunal gives the client what they need according to the professional assessments, whether it’s a nursing assessment, whether it’s a doctor’s, whether it’s an OT (occupational therapist) report, whether it’s a physio assessment.

To continue, what we’ve also done in the meantime is we have sought some legal advice around this. What that means is, we have said, “What would happen if the NDIS rejects funding but the client is at risk of dying or going to hospital?” The lawyer says, and we’ve also studied more of NDIS legislation now that, “If a client is at risk, that it is actually our obligation to send our nurses to keep the client safe, and it’s then the NDIS’ obligation as per NDIS legislation to pay for it.” We’ve put that to the test in the meantime, and it is absolutely true.

On one of my next videos, I actually will read out the letter of advice from our lawyer to shed more light, so stay tuned in the next few days. One of my next videos here will be about the legal advice that we sought, received, and also put in practice already with much success.

So, for this particular client, and I’ve advised the NDIS support coordinator that we’ll just put nursing in place. It doesn’t have to be us, it could be another provider if there is one, and make sure that NDIS participants are safe, and then deal with the NDIS as per legislation.

Whilst NDIS support coordinators have no idea how the NDIS works or how the NDIS legislation works, the NDIS is actually there to protect people, not to go after them. I’ve learned that the hard way too. Bottom line is, this particular client is now at risk of dying because a NDIS support coordinator cannot properly advocate, doesn’t understand legislation, and really has no interest to provide best and evidence-based care for a very, very vulnerable client on the NDIS.

So, with the Intensive Care at Home, we’re currently sending our critical care nurses into the home 24 hours a day. Therefore, we are providing a genuine alternative to a long-term stay in intensive care for ventilation, tracheostomy, Home BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure), Home CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) ventilation without tracheostomy, tracheostomy without ventilation, home TPN, home IV potassium infusions, home IV magnesium infusions, IV fluids, and IV antibiotics. We’re also providing ventilation weaning at home. We’re also providing central line management, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line management, Hickman’s line management as well as port-a-cath management at home. We’re also providing nasogastric tube and PEG tube management at home, as well as palliative care services at home.

We’re also sending our critical care nurses into the home for emergency department bypass services. We have done so successfully as part of the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, their in-touch program, saving approximately $2,000 per patient that we keep at home instead of them going into the emergency department.

Therefore, we’re also in the position to cut the cost of an intensive care bed by around 50%. An intensive care bed costs around $5,000 to $6,000 per bed day. Our service costs between $2,500 to $3,000 per day. We’re freeing up the most sought-after bed in a hospital, which is the ICU bed. But most importantly, we’re improving the quality of life for patients and their families, which is a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

With Intensive Care at Home, we’re currently operating all around Australia in all major capital cities, as well as in all regional and rural areas. We are a NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) approved service provider all around the Australia, TAC (Transport Accident Commission) and WorkSafe in Victoria, iCare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme) in Queensland, as well as the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) all around Australia. Our clients and we, as a provider, have also received funding through public hospitals, private health funds, as well as departments of health.

We are the only service provider in Australia that has achieved third-party accreditation for Intensive Care at Home nursing in 2025. We have been achieving this level of accreditation since 2012. No other provider has achieved this high level of accreditation in the community and has created more intellectual property for Intensive Care at Home than we have. This puts us in a position to employ hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience combined in the community. No other service provider in 2025 employs a higher skill level in the community than we do, which enables us to look after the highest acuity adults and children in the community in the country safely.

If you are at home already and you’re watching this, and you realize you don’t have the right level of support, or if you’re stuck in an ICU long term, or if your family member is stuck in an ICU long term, I’ll give you a tangible and real-world example today. One of our first clients about 10 years ago, when we first got started, was a client who was at home initially on a ventilator with a tracheostomy with a support worker model 24/7. Of course, it’s dangerous and negligent having support workers looking after a client at home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. That’s like flying the airplane with a cabin crew instead of the pilot. Because anyone on a ventilator with a tracheostomy is at very high risk of medical emergencies or dying if they don’t have a team of critical care nurses looking after them 24/7.

This is actually evidence-based, and it’s documented in our Mechanical Home Ventilation Guidelines that you can find on our website at intensivecareathome.com. Think about it: In an intensive care, in a hospital, you wouldn’t have support workers to look after a critical care patient on a ventilator with a tracheostomy, so why would anyone in their right mind do that in a home care environment in the community?

So eventually, this client found out about us. We were proving our concept with this client very fast. When we worked with the client, we sent him intensive care nurses, 24 hours a day. He never ever went back into ICU ever again, and we were proving our concept there very fast. We can do the same for you if you’re not safe at home, which includes the advocacy for funding that goes along with it. We have always successfully advocated for our clients, otherwise, we would not be in business. The same is applicable for those stuck in ICU, similar to our case, to what you are looking for. Reach out to us, we’ll make it happen for you as well. We can take you through the right steps.

That is also why we’re providing Level 2 and Level 3 NDIS Support Coordination. We have a team of NDIS support coordinators, and they have a wealth of knowledge. I’ve done an interview with Amanda Riches, one of our NDIS support coordinators. I’ll put a link to an interview with Amanda in the written version of this blog below the video. We’re also providing TAC case management and WorkSafe case management in Victoria with Lucy McCotter.

If you’re a NDIS support coordinator or case manager from another organization watching this and you’re looking for nursing care for your participants, please reach out to us as well.

If you’re looking for funding for nursing care for your participants and you don’t know how to go about it and what evidence to provide, I encourage you to reach out to us as well. We will help you with the right level of funding and with the right level of advocacy. We also provide NDIS specialist nursing assessments done by critical care nurses with a legal nurse consulting background.

If you are a critical care nurse and you’re looking for a career change, and you want to join a very progressive, dynamic, and high-performing team of critical care nurses in the community, we’re employing hundreds of years of critical care nursing experience combined. If you’re looking for a career change, we’re currently hiring for jobs for critical care nurses in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, in Albury, Wodonga, in Bendigo, in Geelong, and in Warragul in Victoria. If you have worked in critical care nursing for a minimum of 2 years pediatric ICU, ED, and you have already completed a postgraduate critical care nursing qualification, we will be delighted hearing from you.

I have a disclaimer because we are offering a tailor-made solution for our clients which includes regular staff, our clients do want the same staff coming over and over again, because they’re very vulnerable and very special, that’s why we need regular staff. So, if you are looking for agency work where you can come and go, this will not be the right fit for you. We’re looking for consistency, and our clients are looking for consistency. So, please only apply with us if you can give us a regular and consistent availabilities for shifts, and if you’re really keen on building relationships with us and with our clients.

If you’re an intensive care specialist or an ED specialist, we also want to hear from you. We’re currently expanding our medical team as well.

We can also help you eliminate your bed blocks in ICU and ED for your long-term patients or for your regularly readmitting patients with our critical care nursing team at home. We’re here to help you take the pressure off your ICU and ED beds. In most cases, you won’t even pay for it. Even if you do pay for it, it’s much more cost effective than what you’re paying in ICU or in ED for, and you get the same level of care.

If you’re a hospital executive watching this, and you have bed blocks in your ICU, ED, and respiratory wards, home TPN, of course, please reach out to us as well. We can help you eliminate your bed blocks very fast.

If you’re in the U.S. or in the U.K. and you’re watching this and you need help, we want to hear from you as well. We can help you that privately with one-on-one consulting and with hiring nurses privately.

Once again, our website is intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to info@intensivecareathome.com.

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families with Intensive Care at Home and intensive care. Click the like button, click the notification bell, share this video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com, and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.