AMA warns of looming public hospital funding crisis

Australia’s already over-stressed public hospitals are facing a funding crisis, doctors warn.

The Australian Medical Association says its latest hospitals report card points to an imminent crisis due to federal funding cuts.

“Things will get much worse in coming years unless the Commonwealth reverses its drastic cuts from recent budgets,” AMA president Professor Brian Owler said.

“The states and territories are facing a public hospital funding `black hole’ from 2017 when growth in federal funding slows to a trickle.”

The report found 68 per cent of emergency department patients classified as urgent were seen within the recommended 30 minutes, while bed number ratios had deteriorated.

Elective surgery waiting times and treatment targets are largely unchanged.

When measured against recommended benchmarks, the overall performance of public hospitals was “virtually stagnant and even declining in key areas”, he said.

From July 2017, growth in Commonwealth funding will be restricted to indexation using the Consumer Price Index and population growth.

“Treasury advised the Senate Economics Committee that this change will reduce commonwealth public hospital funding by $57 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2024-25,” Prof Owler said.

“As a result, hospitals will have insufficient funding to meet the increasing demand for services.”

The commonwealth also was creating additional and unnecessary demand for hospital services by reducing Medicare payments for diagnostic services in the community by $650 million.

He said those services were essential to diagnosing and treating people early to keep them out of hospital.

“Public hospital funding is about to become the single biggest challenge facing state and territory finances – and the dire consequences are already starting to show.”

PUBLIC HOSPITALS: A REPORT CARD BY THE AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

• Public hospitals are facing a growing funding crisis.
• Sixty-eight per cent of emergency department patients classified as urgent in 2014-15 were seen within the recommended 30 minutes.
• No improvement in percentage of emergency department visits completed in four hours or less: 73 per cent is well short of the 90 per cent target set by state and territory governments.
• The national median waiting time for elective surgery reduced by one day to 35 days, rising steadily since 27 days in 2001.

AAP.

Emma McDonald

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