Australia's under-pressure hospital system is dealing with an extra 2.4 million admissions every year compared to a decade ago.
There were 12.6 million patient admissions across all public and private facilities in 2023-24, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data released on Tuesday revealed.
That includes all medical, surgical, newborn, intensive care, mental health, palliative and rehabilitation care.
The exact number of individual patients cared for has not been made public, only the overall number of admissions, with many people treated more than once.
Overall admissions are up by more than 23 per cent than in 2014-15, when the hospital system dealt with 10.2 million admissions each year.
The rate of hospitalisations is up 3.95 per cent from 2014-15 to sit at 421 per 1000 people.
The report did not specify reasons for the jump, however Australia is dealing with an ageing population like many developed nations.
Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders were the most expensive types of conditions by total cost, accounting for $5.2 billion overall.
However, transplants, life support and other similar procedures were the most expensive on average, costing more than $157,000.
Some three in 10 hospitalisations were for emergencies and seven in 10 were planned admissions or procedures.
The average length of stay across the system was 2.7 days, slightly down from 2014-15, although Australian patients spent an extra five million extra days in hospital.
Public hospitals took on 59 per cent of patients and private facilities cared for the remaining 41 per cent.
"While most planned admissions were to private hospitals, the majority of emergency hospitalisations were treated in a public hospital," the institute's spokeswoman Clara Jellie said.
Indigenous Australians were more likely to be admitted for a potentially preventable hospitalisation than the rest of the population, with 68.9 admissions per 1000 compared to 24.9 for other Australians.
Acute care, which includes admissions for surgery, childbirth and diagnostic procedures, were up 4.9 per cent in public hospitals and 2.6 in private hospitals in the 12 months to June 20, 2024.
The busiest month for admissions was May, while most people were admitted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
