Federal government this week presentation Public hospitals will pay $ 1.7 billion in the state and territory.
This has been claimed by fixing some hospitals and shortening the atmosphere waiting for emergency rooms and optional surgery. But will it actually make a difference?
How does the hospital support funds?
Australian Public Hospital supports funds through cooperation contracts related to state, territory and federal governments. The federal government is provided 37% of public hospital funds Mainly every year National Health Reform Convention. The Lord and the territory funds almost all the rest.
Most federal funds for public hospitals are “Activity -based fundsThe official and funding are based on the number of patients treated and the price of treatment, and the latter was calculated by the average public hospital cost.
The state and the Territory government manages public hospitals. The federal government rarely mentioned how public hospital funds spend. Funding is associated with specifically related to a new hospital ward.
How to compare additional funds
The federal government will spend $ 39 billion at a public hospital This fiscal year. Additional funds will increase public hospital spending by 12% in 2025-26.
Additional funds will have the greatest impact on the Northern Territory Hospital. You will receive $ 550 million, up 30%.
In a larger state, additional funds are provided, but there are more public hospitals and patients. For example, New South Wales will receive $ 470 million, but this is an increase of 11% with the federal government.
Compared to the total public hospital spending, additional funds are less impressive. I did it $ 8.6 billion In 2022-23, an additional $ 1.7 billion will be less than 2% of the total funds for public hospitals in 2025-26.
But this additional expenditure is not isolated. The federal government is already I spent almost $ 600 million setting 87 Emergency Treatment Clinic Around Australia. Their main purpose is to relieve pressure on the emergency room and to fill the gap of approach to primary care.
KHUNCHO24/Shutter Stock
Public hospital pressure
Public hospital pressure has been built for more than 10 years. Emergency rooms are often blocked, and most of them are long due to lack of employees. About 10% of the patient Wait more than 2 hours. It is rarely loose to loosen in the system to cope with unpredictable unpredictable surges.
The ratio of emergency room patients in time has been reduced since Kobead. For example, the proportion of patients requiring the treatment of emergency emergency room is for example. decrease 67%to 61%. More non -rejection and huge patients are not treated on time.
In addition, despite the increase in the number of hospitalizations due to the selective surgery list, we have been waiting for the selective public hospital surgery for a longer time since Covid.
The ratio of patients seen in time in the emergency room of a public hospital
Australian Health and Welfare Research Institute
The waiting time varies from state to territory. Queensland is as follows Lowest ratio In 2023-24, 8.9%of patients waited for more than 365 days for public hospital selection surgery.
Encouraging waiting time In the case of almost all selective surgery, it has decreased. Compared to 2022–23, a public hospital suggests that it can enter the load after cobid.
The percentage of patients waiting for more than 365 days for public hospital selection surgery
Australian Health and Welfare Research Institute
Will money help?
Additional funds are helpful, but there is no magic wand. Public hospitals must substantially reconstruct employees, workflows, beds and buildings. This is a lack of manpower, a burnout and Wage pressureMain health systems make it particularly difficult.
If the state and territory allocate additional funds to the poor, some hospitals can actually reduce their waiting time.
However, performance is related to systematic problems of hospital control, such as lack of manpower. If the size of the total health personnel does not increase, this poor hospital may find additional employees of other public hospitals to make the performance worse.
Another question is whether the improvement continues.
Public hospitals are relaxed only by the potential success of the emergency treatment clinic in terms of increasing demand for emergency room nursing.
More Reading: The emergency treatment center of labor is in the right direction, but it is not a panacea.
Public hospitals also face the increase in demand for selective surgery as the prevalence of population age and chronic disease increases.
The additional $ 1.7 billion is only one. Funds for reducing waiting time are mostly spent on more employees, such as nurses, clinical and administrative staff.
Public hospitals require additional continuous funds to meet demand. Otherwise, the initial improvement will disappear.
GORODENKOFF/SHUTTERSTOCK
What should happen?
All governments need to invest more in preventive programs to slow the growth of public hospital demand.
More Australians are obese at the proportion of the population. Compared to other OECD countries. This caused a big burden.
It is very important to reduce the financial waste of the health care system. Lack of additional funds can be used for long -term improvement of waiting time.
About 40% of health care Low value or causing damage. It is a good start to reduce unnecessary medical tests and increase discharge speed and reduce hospitalization.
Other changes that can be helpful include:
- To reduce the list of waiting, the national performance goal of the state and territory is set
- Powerful monitoring of performance
- Public hospital managers are more responsible for achieving waiting time goals.
The new National Health Reform Agreement will take effect in 2026. Those who have won the federal election of the year must finish this contract with the state and territory.
The Commonwealth Over and Operation is still Mid -term review of the current contract Announced in October 2023. The degree of accepting these recommendations by the government is likely to have a much longer longer -term impact on waiting time than this additional one -off payment.
