NDIS Nursing and Disability-Related Health Supports: What Is Funded (2026)

NDIS nursing is nursing care paid for from an NDIS plan because of the health needs that come with a disability, such as catheter care, wound care or help with a feeding tube. The NDIA calls the wider group “disability-related health supports”. This guide explains what the NDIS funds, what Medicare and the health system fund instead, who can deliver the care, the nursing support items providers claim, and how to get these supports into your plan.

For this guide we read the NDIA’s guideline on disability-related health supports, dated 31 August 2026, its two lists of what is and is not an NDIS support, the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 and other NDIA pages. Every claim below comes from those primary sources, and the check-it-yourself section shows you where to find them.

NDIS nursing: quick summary

• The NDIS can fund health supports you need because of your disability: when your disability causes a health condition, or when you need help to manage it.
• It does not fund the treatment of the health condition itself. Diagnosis, clinical treatment, medicines, hospital care and nursing for a health event belong to the health system.
• The NDIA’s list of NDIS supports has a category called “community nursing care”. It includes catheter care, skin integrity checks, tracheostomy care, medication management and intramuscular injections.
• A registered nurse can often train a support worker to do a task, then supervise them. The NDIA calls this delegation and supervision of care.
• The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 lists NDIS nursing items for five types of nurse, from enrolled nurse to nurse practitioner.
• To get these supports in your plan, you need evidence, such as a nurse care plan, a hospital discharge summary or a report from your health care provider.
• The NDIA says the support budget reductions that began in October 2026 will not impact funding for disability related health supports.

What disability-related health supports are

The NDIA starts from a simple point. All Australians have an equal right to the health system, whether or not they have a disability. The health system treats illnesses and health conditions, while the NDIS funds supports that relate to your disability.

According to the NDIA’s guideline, you might need a disability-related health support in two situations. First, your disability causes the health condition. Second, you need help to manage the health condition because of your disability. Either way, the NDIA will only fund an NDIS support that directly relates to your disability.

The one question to ask yourself

The NDIA suggests a test: “If I didn’t have my disability, would I need this health support?” If the answer is no, it is probably disability related. If you would need it even without a disability, it is unlikely to be.

The NDIA’s own example shows how this works for NDIS nursing. Clive falls over and cuts his hand, and the hospital tells him to see his doctor to have the dressing changed every 2 days. Clive wants the NDIS to fund a nurse to change it at home. However, the NDIA says this is not an NDIS support, because the wound care is not related to his disability. The health system provides that care.

What the NDIS may fund

The guideline says disability-related health supports may be funded for:

• someone, such as a support worker, to provide your disability-related health supports
• training for your support workers, or for family or friends who support you, where appropriate
• consumables, the things you use to manage your condition, such as continence products, dressings or food products for a PEG (a feeding tube).

The NDIA may also fund some assistive technology as a disability-related health support. Its examples are pressure care cushions or a mattress, if you need regular care to prevent pressure sores because of your disability, and a cough assist machine if you need support with your respiratory health because of your disability. Our guide to NDIS consumables explains how the consumables budget works.

The 11 areas of disability-related health supports

The NDIA’s guideline lists the types of disability-related health supports it may fund. Each description below is based on the NDIA’s wording.

Supports outside the list

The list is not closed. The NDIA says you may need other disability-related health supports not covered in its list, and suggests you talk to your my NDIS contact, support coordinator or recovery coach about them. It also publishes separate guidelines for six of these areas: dysphagia, nutrition, diabetes, continence, wound and pressure care, and podiatry. Our guides to NDIS dietitian and nutrition supports and NDIS speech therapy cover two of them in more detail.

NDIS nursing or health system nursing: where the line sits

Nursing is where the line between the two systems matters most, because the same task can fall on either side. The NDIA’s two lists of supports draw that line in plain words.

What the NDIS supports list includes

The list of NDIS supports has a category called community nursing care. The NDIA describes it as “disability-related nursing care for participants with high care needs (not including high intensity daily personal activities), requiring a high level of clinical skill”. It is the category on the list most directly about NDIS nursing, and it includes:

• catheter care
• skin integrity checks
• tracheostomy care
• medication management
• intramuscular injections
• training of support workers to respond to a participant’s complex needs.

The same list has a separate category for disability-related health supports, described as “health supports that relate to the functional impact of a participant’s disability”. It also lists high intensity daily personal activities, which must be provided by a worker with additional qualifications and experience. In addition, it includes products to manage incontinence and modified foods for PEG feeding, under assistive products for personal care and safety.

What the not-NDIS-supports list excludes

The NDIA’s list of supports that are not NDIS supports has a section called “Related to health”. These are the entries most likely to affect NDIS nursing:

Put simply, NDIS nursing responds to the ongoing health needs that come with your disability. By contrast, nursing to treat an illness, an injury or a recent operation is the health system’s job. The Pricing Schedule says the same thing: its NDIS nursing items are for care “where that care is not the usual responsibility of the health system”.

Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

If you need help with your health, the NDIA says to talk to your doctor first. Medicare helps all Australians with the cost of health care, and you may be able to use it for services to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or arthritis. You can keep using Medicare-funded health services while you are an NDIS participant.

Medicines are different. You can’t use NDIS funds to buy any medicines or to pay the gap for medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. If a medicine is not on the scheme, you pay for it yourself. The not-NDIS-supports list also names health insurance, ambulance membership and gap payments for Medicare-funded services.

If you go into hospital

While you are in hospital, hospital staff are responsible for your care, including personal care and your medication. You can’t use NDIS funds to pay a support worker to visit you or care for you in hospital. Instead, you can give your care plan to hospital staff, so they can adapt and follow it. In some cases, if you have complex communication needs or challenging behaviours, the NDIA may fund supports while you are in hospital.

If you have funding for a support coordinator or recovery coach, that support can continue while you are in hospital. They can help you prepare for discharge and set up the supports you will need at home.

Aged care, custody, oxygen and electricity

• Residential aged care: if you are an NDIS participant living in residential aged care, your aged care provider is responsible for your disability-related health supports.
• Custody: in prison, youth detention or another setting ordered by a court, the justice system provides your health support needs. The NDIA can support your disability-related needs as you move back into the community. Our guide to NDIS support in the justice system explains more.
• Oxygen: oxygen supply and related equipment are your state or territory’s responsibility. In NSW, the NDIA points to the New South Wales Health Oxygen Scheme.
• Electricity: you can’t use NDIS funds for high electricity costs from medical equipment, but your my NDIS contact or support coordinator can help you access another government scheme.

Who can deliver NDIS nursing and health supports

Not every health support needs NDIS nursing. When the NDIA decides what is value for money, it looks at who is the most appropriate person to deliver the support, for example a family member, a support worker or a nurse. It then funds the person with the most appropriate skills for the task.

Some tasks do need a qualified practitioner, such as a nurse or a qualified therapist. The NDIA gives two examples: only a nurse can change a urinary catheter, or teach a support worker to give a feed safely through a PEG. Its other guidelines name more nursing tasks, such as a nurse writing a disability-related diabetes management plan, or a nurse developing a wound management plan. So a trained support worker can take on some routine health tasks under delegation, while certain steps, such as changing a urinary catheter, stay with a nurse.

Registered nurse delegation and supervision of care

For many disability-related health supports, a registered nurse may be able to train someone else and delegate the task to them. If a family member, friend or carer can’t do it, the training can go to a support worker or an enrolled nurse. Once that person is competent, they do the task for you instead of the registered nurse. The NDIA calls this “delegation and supervision of care”. As a result, a plan may fund NDIS nursing time to assess, train and supervise, rather than a nurse for every task.

The registered nurse stays responsible for the care throughout. Here is what the guideline says about their role:

• The registered nurse decides whether a task can be delegated.
• They can’t delegate a task if your health needs are inconsistent or likely to change.
• Some tasks can’t be delegated at all, for example daily tracheostomy tie and dressing changes.
• Before delegating, they must make sure the worker is trained specifically for your needs and is competent, and they must be available for direct and indirect supervision.

Your NDIS provider must also make sure its workers have the current skills and knowledge to support you, and any training must be documented and regularly audited. For its part, the NDIA says it will include enough funding for a registered nurse to create a health assessment, create and update a care plan, train support workers, assess you in other places such as a school or workplace if needed, and provide ongoing supervision.

Whether the NDIA funds training also depends on your needs, where the support is provided, whether it requires specific skills and qualifications, and value for money. It also depends on any rules your state or territory has about who can provide the support.

Value for money: a trained worker or a daily nurse visit

The NDIA’s example is Hannah, who lives with Down syndrome and diabetes and can’t do her own daily finger prick test. She is moving into her own home, with a support worker visiting each day. Her plan funds training so her support worker can test her blood sugar safely, instead of a nurse. According to the NDIA, a daily nurse visit as well would not be reasonable and necessary, because her support worker can do the test safely.

Standard or high intensity support

Once a task can be delegated, the NDIA decides the level of support: standard or high intensity. High intensity applies to the tasks the NDIS Practice Standards identify as high intensity daily personal activities. The guideline lists eight:

• complex bowel care
• enteral feeding and management
• severe dysphagia management
• tracheostomy care
• urinary catheter management
• ventilator management
• subcutaneous injections, for example diabetes management
• complex wound management.

The NDIA funds a support worker at the high intensity level for the times you receive these supports, and at the standard level for the rest. Usually, a plan has a mix of both. In its example, Neil needs insulin 3 times a day and can’t inject it himself. So the NDIA funds a trained support worker at the high intensity level 3 times a day as a drop-in support, while his other supports stay at the standard level.

In the Pricing Schedule, high intensity support worker items carry “High Intensity” in their name, for example Assistance With Self-Care Activities - High Intensity - Weekday Daytime (01_400_0104_1_1). Our guide to NDIS personal care explains the standard and high intensity items for help with daily personal activities.

The NDIS nursing support items

The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, effective 24 September 2026, lists the nursing items in Appendix 3, “Nursing and other labour supports”. It says these items are for “nursing care to respond to the disability-related health needs of a participant where that care is not the usual responsibility of the health system”.

There is one table for each of five types of nurse, Tables 10 to 14, and each type is defined by its classification under the Nurses Award 2020. The weekday daytime items are below.

Each nurse type also has items for Weekday Evening, Weekday Night, Saturday, Sunday and Public Holiday. In total, that makes 60 NDIS nursing items: 30 with numbers starting 01 and 30 starting 15.

Why each nursing item appears twice

The NDIA’s Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26, which the NDIA still lists as claiming guidance, explains the two numbers. It places the items starting 01 in Core, Assistance with Daily Life, and the items starting 15 in Capacity Building, Improved Daily Living. It also says the nursing items were duplicated into Assistance with Daily Life “so that participants can have greater access to these supports if they need them”.

This matters because the two budgets work differently. Core supports funding is flexible, so you can use it across and within its categories. In contrast, capacity building funding is stated, and you can’t move it between support categories. So check where any NDIS nursing funding sits in your plan before you book.

Other items used for health supports

Nursing items are only one part of the picture. The same NDIA document describes five types of disability-related health supports, each claimed differently:

• support workers: the standard and high intensity daily personal activities items
• therapists: the therapy and early childhood items
• nurses: the nursing items above
• consumables: dedicated disability-related health consumables items
• assistive technology: dedicated disability-related health assistive technology items.

What the price limits mean for you

For NDIS nursing, as for other supports, the Pricing Schedule sets maximum amounts, not fixed prices. They apply when your funding is managed by the NDIA or by a registered plan manager, and they already include GST. Amounts also differ by day and time, which is why each nurse type has an item for each of six times. The NDIA adds that providers can’t charge more than the maximum for those participants. The current amounts are in our NDIS price guide.

Health supports for children

Generally, families are responsible for a child’s daily support needs, including health needs. Even so, the NDIA may fund disability-related health supports if your child needs substantially more help with health care than a child of the same age without a disability. It will consider your child’s situation, your capacity to provide support and any risks to your wellbeing, and the informal, mainstream and community supports available.

So a child’s plan can include NDIS nursing too. In the NDIA’s example, Rita is 11, lives with spina bifida and wants to manage her own catheterisation before high school. The NDIA funds a continence assessment by a Clinical Nurse Consultant, and may also fund a registered nurse to help Rita build her skills. Routine check-ups for babies and young children, on the other hand, come from the health system, often through a midwife or a maternal and child health nurse.

How to get NDIS nursing into your plan

The NDIA can only include a support in your plan if it meets all the NDIS funding criteria. For health supports, its starting questions are whether the support relates to your disability, is value for money, and is effective and beneficial for you. These steps follow the NDIA’s own guidance.

1. Start with your doctor

As the Medicare section above explains, your doctor comes first. Your doctor can treat the condition and link you to health services paid for through Medicare. That keeps the treatment with the health system, so your NDIS request can focus on the disability-related part.

2. Get the right evidence

You need to give the NDIA evidence to get disability-related health supports, including NDIS nursing, in your plan. Your health care provider or allied health practitioner should explain:

• the type and amount of support you need
• how the support relates to your disability
• how the support is effective and beneficial for you
• who is the most appropriate person to provide it
• where the support will be provided.

If you are about to leave hospital, the NDIA uses your discharge summary or your most recent nurse care plan. These should set out the tasks needed, who has the most appropriate skills to provide the care, your individual needs, how complex the tasks are, and any risks.

3. Ask for a change if your plan falls short

If your situation has changed, or your plan does not have enough funding for the health supports you need, you can ask for a change. The NDIA uses a plan variation request form for smaller changes, and a plan reassessment request form for significant and ongoing changes. You must send your evidence with the completed form. The NDIA may be able to consider your request before your plan’s reassessment date. Our guide to NDIS plan reassessment covers that process.

4. Equipment needs its own assessment

If you are asking for equipment, such as a pressure care mattress or a cough assist machine, your advisor or assessor may need to provide information. The NDIA has assistive technology assessment templates for this. Our guide to NDIS assistive technology explains the process.

5. If you disagree with the decision

If the NDIA decides a health support does not meet the funding criteria, it will give you written reasons. You can then ask for an internal review, and the guideline says you need to ask within 3 months of getting your plan.

How to check NDIS nursing items yourself

The guidelines, support items and maximum amounts behind NDIS nursing change, so it is worth knowing where to look. The steps take a few minutes:

1. Go to the NDIA’s Our Guidelines page and open “Disability-related health supports”. Check the date on the first page. The version we read is dated 31 August 2026.
2. Open the NDIA’s page on what NDIS supports are. Download both lists, then read “Community nursing care” on the first and “Related to health” on the second.
3. Go to the pricing arrangements page and open the current NDIS Pricing Schedule. Check the title line says the financial year and effective date you expect.
4. Search the Schedule for “Delivery of Health Supports”. In the 2026-27 Schedule, the nursing items are in Appendix 3, Tables 10 to 14.
5. Each row shows three amounts: National, Remote and Very Remote. The Schedule says the National amount applies in MM 1 to 5 locations under the Modified Monash Model.

Frequently asked questions

Does the NDIS pay for nursing?

It can. NDIS nursing can be funded when the care relates to your disability and meets the funding criteria. Community nursing care is on the NDIA’s list of NDIS supports. However, nursing services related to the treatment of a health event, and hospital in the home, are on the list of supports that are not NDIS supports.

Will the NDIS fund a nurse after I leave hospital?

Not for care that treats the illness or operation. In the NDIA’s example, Abdul has his appendix removed, and a nurse then visits him at home to check his wound and give him antibiotics. His local health system provides that. If you will need disability-related health supports after you leave hospital, the NDIA uses your discharge summary or nurse care plan to work out what you need and who should provide it.

Can a support worker give insulin or help with a catheter?

In many cases, yes, under delegation and supervision of care. A registered nurse trains the support worker and stays responsible for the care. Some tasks still need a nurse. For example, the NDIA says only a nurse can change a urinary catheter.

Does the NDIS pay for my medication?

No. You can’t use NDIS funds to buy medicines or pay the gap for medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. However, community nursing care on the NDIA’s list includes medication management. The NDIA’s diabetes guideline also says that, if you can’t manage your diabetes because of your disability, it can fund a support worker to give you injections or other medications, as long as the support meets the NDIS funding criteria.

Can I use my NDIS funding while I am in hospital?

Not to pay a support worker to visit or care for you, because hospital staff are responsible for your care. Support coordination or recovery coaching can continue. In some cases, the NDIA may also fund support in hospital if you have complex communication needs or challenging behaviours.

Does the NDIS fund oxygen?

No. Oxygen supply and related equipment are the responsibility of your state or territory. In NSW, the NDIA names the New South Wales Health Oxygen Scheme.

Are health supports affected by the October 2026 budget changes?

The NDIA says some support budgets are being reduced over 12 months: from 1 October 2026 when a plan is reassessed or a new plan is approved, and from 1 February 2027 when a plan is renewed. It also says these changes will not impact funding for disability related health supports. Our guide to the October 2026 budget changes explains the rest.

Does the NDIS fund palliative care?

No. Palliative care is on the list of supports that are not NDIS supports. The list notes, though, that disability-related supports in your plan may continue at the same time as palliative care services.

What is the difference between community nursing care and high intensity support?

They are separate categories on the NDIA’s list. Community nursing care is disability-related nursing care needing a high level of clinical skill. High intensity daily personal activities are tasks such as enteral feeding or urinary catheter management, done or supervised by a suitably qualified worker, often trained by a registered nurse.

How Centre of Hope can help

Centre of Hope offers NDIS community nursing in your home across Sydney and NSW, for the health needs that come with a disability. It covers areas such as wound care, continence and catheter care, enteral feeding, respiratory care and written care plans your team can follow. The service works alongside your support workers and your doctors, and can help train your support team.

Through support coordination, we can also help you gather evidence, link with health services and plan for a hospital discharge. If several systems are involved, such as health, housing or justice, ask us about Level 3 specialist support coordination. If one of the options we discuss is one of our own services, we tell you plainly, talk through the alternatives, and leave the decision with you. To talk it through, call 0432 250 900 or contact our team.

Related reading

• NDIS consumables explained: continence products, dressings and PEG supplies
• Reasonable and necessary criteria: the tests every support must pass
• NDIS dietitian and nutrition supports: one of the health support areas in detail
• Level 3 support coordination: when health, housing and other systems overlap
• NDIS personal care: standard and high intensity help with daily personal activities
• NDIS support coordination levels explained

Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not replace personal advice from the NDIA, your doctor or your treating health professionals. Information is current as at 4 November 2026 and reflects the NDIA’s Our Guideline on disability-related health supports (31 August 2026), the NDIA’s lists of supports that are and are not NDIS supports, the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 (effective 24 September 2026), the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26, and the NDIA pages named in this article. Any example is illustrative and is not an entitlement: what your plan funds depends on the NDIA’s decision about your needs. Rules, support items and maximum amounts change, so always confirm the current position at ndis.gov.au before you rely on it. Centre of Hope is a registered NDIS provider in NSW, registration 4050161679.