30 June 2009
The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) today argued that significant additional funding and serious structural reform were needed to ensure Australia's public hospital system remains sustainable.
The AHHA is the peak national body representing public hospitals, area health services, community health centres and public aged care providers.
"The State of our Public Hospitals report reveals the pressure on our public hospital system to constantly do more with less," Ms Prue Power, Executive Director, said.
"Between 2003-04 and 2007-08 the rate of available beds in Australia has remained steady at about 2.5 per 1,000 head of population. However, since then the number of people presenting at Emergency Departments has increased significantly. While hospitals have performed extremely well in dealing with this increasing pressure, this situation is unsustainable.
"The cracks are already being to show in areas such as Emergency Departments which simply cannot cope with the demands placed on them. Unless this situation is addressed, the capacity of Australia's health system to deal with emergency health problems, such as potential epidemics, will be severely compromised.
"AHHA acknowledges that the Federal Government inherited a hospital system struggling after years of under-funding and has made some efforts to address these years of funding shortfall. However, significant additional resources and serious structural reform are needed to build a sustainable hospital system for the future.
"In particular, AHHA recommends that the following strategies be adopted:
- capacity building: both within hospitals, to upgrade ageing infrastructure, address workforce shortages and improve systems, and within the community, to prevent the current high number of preventable hospital admissions. This must include additional funding.
- ehealth: a nationally consistent e-health system would enhance discharge planning and facilitate coordination of care and communication between hospitals and GP / community care teams. The proposed health 'smart card' is a good start but needs to be integrated with other ehealth systems to be effective.
- governance: reform of health system governance is required to support greater integration between different levels of the health system and increased transparency and accountability. This would decrease the current high level of cost-shifting and improve coordination of care.
"We have the opportunity now to make changes to ensure our public hospital system is sustainable in the future. AHHA urges governments of all levels to ensure that this opportunity is not missed," Ms Power said.
Contact: Ms Prue Power 0417 419 857