The Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) annual Public Hospital Report Card says hospitals are facing “a growing funding crisis” – with their performance virtually stagnant, and even declining in certain areas – and lays the blame squarely at the feet of the federal government.
It rejects claims health spending is unsustainable, saying there have now been two years when growth has been well below the long-term average annual growth of 5% over the last decade.
The 2016 report feeds into the current debate about tax reform, in which premiers Mike Baird and Jay Weatherill have supported a rise in the GST to help with the growing problem of hospital funding.
AMA president Brian Owler said that from July 2017 the Commonwealth would limit its contribution to public hospital costs, with rises in its funding restricted to indexation using CPI and population growth only.
“As a result, hospitals will have insufficient funding to meet the increasing demand for services,” Owler said.
“Things will get much worse in coming years unless the Commonwealth reverses its drastic cuts from recent budgets.”
Commonwealth funding for hospitals had already been reduced for the three years to 2017-18, with a further reduction to 2018-19 in the December budget update, he said.
“Public hospital funding is about to become the single biggest challenge facing state and territory finances – and the dire consequences are already staring to show,” Owler said.
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Among its 2016 findings, the report says that hospital bed-to-population numbers have been constant over recent years, despite an increasing demand for hospital services. Total public hospital bed numbers increased by 256 in 2013-14, while numbers as a ratio per 1000 of the general population fell to 2.51, from 2.57 in 2012-13. This ratio had not improved since 2009-10.
Only 68% of emergency department patients classified as urgent in 2014-15 were seen within the recommended 30 minutes.