MACLEAY residents are being surveyed to gauge interest in an aged care facility on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands.
It comes amid pleas from locals who say a home on the islands would stop elderly residents travelling several hours away from home for care.
Macleay Island resident Lindsay Hackett, who helped structure the survey, said results could be used to lobby government and aged care providers.
The survey had only been distributed to Macleay Island residents and was set to finish on Monday, October 19.
As of Friday, 540 people had voted in favour of opening an aged care home on the island, while just nine were against.
Of those who agreed with the plan, 48 wanted it to happen immediately and 381 said they were happy for it to open further down the track.
Russell Island was the most popular location for the home, with the majority of those who had voted so far falling in the 55 to 75 age bracket.
Mr Hackett said there should be interest in setting up an aged care home on the islands given their low socio-economic status and remote classification.
"The first step is to establish the community's need for such a facility," he said.
"The survey is being limited to Macleay because of cost and convenience and, importantly, because the demographic profile of people on Macleay is essentially equivalent to that of people on the other islands.
"This will allow extrapolation of the Macleay results to all Islands."
Mr Hackett estimated that a 30-bed facility would be needed for the island population.
"I would be kicking it (the survey results) back to the authorities - and people like United Care Australia - to say here is the data, there is an obvious need, and we've got a growing population of about 2.9 per cent per year," he said.
Mr Hackett said island residents needing accommodation in an aged care home had to relocate to the mainland under the current circumstances, seeing them move away from friends and family.
"Our intention is that Islanders will have priority access to the SMBI nursing home and that couples will have a greater chance of joint occupancy rather than being sent to separate homes as is likely now," he said.
Residents want the nursing home to run like existing facilities, with 24 hour care, prepared meals, and services for cleaning and laundry.
Mr Hackett said an island home would need to be run by a not-for-profit provider like Blue Care.
"I don't think a for-profit would be viable out here," he said.
"The in-home care services offered by providers like Blue Care and Star Community Services allow people to live in their own homes for as long as possible.
"However, eventually some of us will want or need to move into a residential aged care facility, that is, a nursing home with 24 hour nursing care available."
Read more local news here.
