Australia’s public hospitals are in a “woeful” state and failing to meet government targets, according to the Australian Medical Association’s latest annual report card.
In 2015-16, public hospitals regressed or stagnated on most key metrics – out of 48 measures, only three were deemed “positive” and 40 branded “fails”.
Across the country, only the Northern Territory had an improvement in elective surgery waiting times. No state or territory managed to improve their emergency waiting times, and the AMA pointed to “inadequate and uncertain” levels of government funding.
“Inadequate funding has consigned public hospitals to a constant state of emergency,” the association said. “Over-stretched and over-stressed public hospitals are suffering.”
Nationally, only 67% of urgent emergency patients were seen within the recommended 30 minutes, well short of the 80 per cent target set in 2012. Median waiting times for elective surgery also increased to 37 days, the longest since 2001.
In Tasmania, the wait times rose from 50 days in 2014-15, to 72 last year, making it the worst result in the country. The wait times in New South Wales climbed to 55 days.
Small improvements were recorded in Victoria and Queensland for urgent elective surgery patients, but they still fell short of targets. The bed number ratios remained static at 2.55 beds per 1,000 people.
“We have been waiting almost two years to have the commonwealth’s unilateral cuts to public hospital funding reversed,” said the AMA president, Dr Michael Gannon.
“Now we have an inadequate short-term fix and a further three years to wait”.
He called April’s Coag announcement of $2.9bn of additional government funding “welcome but inadequate”. At the time, the then president Professor Brian Owler called it an “inadequate short-term downpayment to appease the states before the federal election”.
The federal health ministry said the states were partly to blame for waiting times.
Speaking on behalf of the new federal health minister, Greg Hunt, it said “one of the most significant factors in waiting times for public hospitals is the practice by some states of increasing the number of private patients. Minister Hunt will be taking this up with each of the states.
“While the states run the hospital system, commonwealth funding is increasing by approximately $1bn per year. Public hospital funding is forecast to grow to $21.2bn in 2019-20. This represents an increase of $7.4bn since the Coalition came into government – or more than 50%.”
The AMA is calling for an increase in funding closer to $8n by 2020. “Without sufficient funding to increase capacity, public hospitals will never meet the targets set by governments, and patients will wait longer for treatment,” it said.
