Australia’s worst performing public hospitals revealed in ‘shocking’ new AMA analysis
Only three of 201 Australian public hospitals are delivering care to patients within the recommended timeframe – down from 15 hospitals a year ago, a damning new report has revealed.
The Australian Medical Association released a new analysis on Tuesday which revealed the “shocking” results which president Professor Steve Robson said reflected a worsening problem in the country’s public hospitals.
The public health system is under increasing pressure from continued workforce shortages, increased ambulance ramps and emergency departments beyond capacity.
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The combination of these factors is causing hospitals nationwide to struggle to cope, the AMA warns, with long delays for essential elective surgeries and waiting times in emergency departments.
Robson said the AMA’s new Australian Public Hospitals in Logjam report “paints a deteriorating picture of emergency department and essential surgery performance”.
In 2020-21, only 15 of 201 hospitals received “green lights” against all performance indicators.
But last year’s results reflected a more dire state, with only three hospitals given the green light: Young Hospital in NSW and South Coast District and Riverland General hospitals in South Australia.
Australians can find out how their local hospitals stack up by entering their postcode into the AMA logjam finder.
The tool works by using the latest hospital data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to rank hospital performance on emergency department response times and whether essential elective surgery was performed within the recommended timeframe.
Robson said the findings were shocking and urged Australians to step up and check the performance of their local hospital.
“The AMA’s logjam finder is the only place where national hospital data is presented in this way and we are asking people to tell us their stories and email their MPs so that state and federal governments can hear their voices,” he said. said.
The AMA is calling on the National Cabinet this week to tackle the country’s backlog of operations which is estimated to top half a million at the end of June.
“It’s devastating for every person who is waiting and dealing with months and months of pain,” Robson said.
“It is unlikely that hospitals will be able to expand their capacity to address this backlog if there is no intervention.”
The association wants a new national plan funded by all governments with an upfront payment by the Commonwealth to support state and territory governments to expand hospitality capacity.
Robson said the AMA had also called on the federal government to increase its share of hospital funding from 45 to 50 percent and to remove the annual cap on activity.
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