25 November 2009
The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) today rejected calls from
Catholic Health Australia for the Federal Government to use their hospitals as a test-case
for a future federal takeover of the public hospital system.
“AHHA rejects the need for a piecemeal federal takeover of Catholic public hospitals.
There is overwhelming evidence that public hospitals are performing efficiently and to a
high standard,” Ms Prue Power, AHHA Executive Director said today.
“For example, the recent interim 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.
“In fact, given that public hospitals have to deal with unpredictable demand (half of all
admissions to public hospitals occur through emergency departments whereas private
hospital admissions are almost all planned), more complex cases and patients from
lower socio-economic backgrounds, it is likely that the cost of public hospital treatment
is even lower than that of private hospitals.
Catholic Health Australia has claimed that privately managed public hospitals are
cheaper. However, this claim is made on the basis of what is described as secret
hospital information which is unverified and which they will not disclose.
“Public hospitals are under pressure because they face a rising and uncapped demand.
“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.
“Public and private sectors can and should work together. But this proposal is not the
answer,” Ms Power said.
For further information/comment:
Ms Prue Power 0417 419 857
Public hospitals
reject takeover
proposal
NEWS 
