Public health system faces growing financial stress, Australian Medical Association report card finds
By political reporter Stephen Dziedzic
ABC News

Public hospitals are facing a budget crisis as federal and state governments bicker over funding, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has warned.   
Key points:

    Report card finds emergency department waiting times have worsened
    Number of hospital beds increased slightly but does not meet demand
    Elective surgery waiting times improved marginally
    AMA wants any change in tax to benefit health system

The Association's annual public hospital report card found emergency department waiting times had worsened slightly, with 68 per cent of "urgent" emergency department patients seen within half an hour.

Of all emergency department visits, 73 per cent were completed in four hours or less, well short of the 90 per cent target for 2015 set by state governments.

The number of hospital beds increased slightly, but not enough to meet growing demand.

Elective surgery waiting times improved marginally, with the average patient now waiting 35 days for surgery.

But that figure has deteriorated since 2001, when patients waited only 27 days on average.

AMA president Brian Owler said most state governments had made a concerted push to reduce hospital waiting times, but the "disappointing" report card showed they were struggling to cope with growing demand.   

Professor Owler attacked the Federal Government's efforts to force the states to bear a larger share of health costs by fixing its own funding increases to indexation and population growth.

"The states are facing a hospital funding black hole from next year, when the growth in federal funding slows," he said.

"In a struggling public hospital system that's failing to meet its performance targets that sort of slowdown in funding growth will mean that they will be under further strain, and I think we'll start to see further clinical services being cut."

He also said the Federal Government should not cut income taxes while the public hospital system remained underfunded.

Treasurer Scott Morrison is working on a tax white paper canvassing possible changes to personal and corporate tax arrangements.

The Government has not revealed its final plans, but Professor Owler said Mr Morrison's suggestion that cutting income tax could boost jobs and growth was concerning.

"What we want to see is any revenue that is raised is kept in health, and we've seen some worrying comments from the new Treasurer Scott Morrison saying that he wants to fund personal income tax cuts — now that is not what that discussion was about," Professor Owler said.

"It's crucial that if we get any extra revenue then it go into health, because that's what it was promised for, and that is where it's needed."

Raise the GST and get it over with.

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:24am:


Well they dont want encourage people to use it so they make you wait and wait, pay though and its a different story , care magically appears   

miketrees wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:13am:




the thing is the cost of running this goes up every day.... it stands to reason....

why do we have DOUBLE everything..

Fed health

State health...

all with little emperors

and  for the most part all inefficient......

all running over cost all running behind with services...

the health system is like a giant eating machine with 8 heads to feed.......completely out of control.

its bizarre...

aquascoot wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:32am:


Unfortunately I think the cost continually going up relates to research developments in treatment methods, modern machinery etc, its a bit unavoidable in a modern society.

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:35am:



so you think staff... read nurses... spending half their day getting from one service to another is efficient?..

have you been to Woden of late????

cods wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 7:40am:



my version of personal development is not rocket science.
you dont need 100's of scientists and expensive labs trying to find genetic markers and doing endless expensive tests.

1   eat healthy food that comes straight out of the ground
2 get good sleep
3 dont smoke, drink or use drugs
4  walk around the block with your dog, doing walking meditation, smile and chat to everyone you pass and develop a community social spirit and mindfulness.

Total cost =  0

availability to every soul in australia  =  universal.

Why do people keep putting their faith in science to solve problems which science cannot solve.

Obesity and overweight at 70 %
negative neurotic thought, anxiety and depression at 50 %.

how much longer does science want to solve these problems?

when will the high tech, high expense researchers in major hospitals deliver the break thru.

Aquascoot thinks everyone knows how to lose weight and develop a resilient mental health.

Its called personal development and guess what

"its personal"

nothing will change for anyone, costs will continue to rise , cry baby stories will continue to be told til people realise that it will not change for them til THEY CHANGE 

Redmond Neck wrote on Jan 28^th, 2016 at 8:03am:



big hospitals are monuments to politicians ego's .
nothing more.

health (physical and mental) is, for most people, a personal responsibility.

we need hospitals for road trauma, cancer and some diseases.

big hospitals are full of heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure, lung disease and depression.

all of these are , to a very large extent, self inflicted injuries due to bad diet, lack of exercise, smoking and drugs and incorrect lazy thinking patterns .

to say we will just build more hospitals (as politicians seem to say) is nuts.

if we had 1000's of people injured due to bad roads and drink drivers, what is more sensible...build more hosptials to treat them so a pollie can cut a ribbon or attack the problem at the source...build better roads and get the drunks out of cars.

Public health is a monster and it is symbolic of bad and lazy thinking