2 December 2009
Governments and policy makers need to focus on the data to fix the problems within the
public health care system, according to the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals
Association (AHHA) today.
"AHHA calls on all Australian governments to focus on the data in the lead-up to the 7
December COAG meeting which will discuss the future of Australia's public hospital
system," Ms Prue Power, AHHA Executive Director said today
"It's essential that all jurisdictions put aside their individual perspectives and concentrate
on developing a plan that is in the national interest. Also vital is that health interest
groups put all relevant information and data they have on the table for discussion so
that COAG can base its discussion on facts.
"AHHA is aware of a body of research which has found that public hospitals are efficient
and that the main problem with our current system is that they have not been
adequately funded to meet rising community demand.
"For example, the recent report from the Productivity Commission comparing the
performance of public and private hospitals found that "at a national level, public and
private hospitals had a broadly similar cost per casemix-adjusted separation in 2007-08"
"Another data source comes from Dr John Deeble who recently stated in a monograph
published by AHHA that over the past decade public hospitals have dealt with substantial
increases in demand without corresponding increases in resources.
"
Dr Deeble's monograph found that over the 12 years to 2008, public hospitals have
increased their public patient admissions per person covered by about 47% while the
admission rate of privately insured people has hardly changed at all. His analysis found
that in the last four years overall demand for acute admission has increased 15-20%
however the rate of available beds in Australia has remained steady at about 2.5 per
1,000 head of population. This situation is putting public hospitals under increasing
pressure and is simply not sustainable within their capped budget environment.
“COAG must base its discussion on this and other high quality, verifiable and un-biased
data if it is to deliver a workable plan for the future of Australia's public hospital system,"
Ms Power said.
For further information/comment:
Ms Prue Power 0417 419 857
Focus on data to fix
hospitals
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