Posted by Michael Wonder on 06 Dec 2017
Growth of private care in public hospitals raises equity questions
6 December 2017 - A new report showing that public patients wait twice as long for elective surgery as private patients do in public hospitals raises serious questions about equity of access to care.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report into statistics on private health insurance patients in Australian hospitals shows that between 2006-07 and 2015-16 the number of privately insured patients treated in public hospitals rose by an average 9.6% a year. The rate of growth for insured patients treated in private hospitals, 4.9%, was nearly half that rate.
The report also showed that privately insured patients experienced shorter median waiting times for elective surgery 20 days compared with 42 days for public patients.
