Private hospitals’ COVID recovery continues

Source: http://phnews.org.au/

05/06/23

Workforce shortages continue to hamper private hospitals in their efforts to return to pre-COVID-19 elective surgery levels, says Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) CEO Michael Roff.

However, the March quarter data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) shows that although episodes of care in the private sector dropped compared to the previous quarter, the post-COVID recovery is showing some signs of promise.

There were 920,738 episodes in private hospitals in the March 2023 quarter, slightly higher than March 2019 (pre-pandemic) when there were 873,589.

Mr Roff said while this was an increase in pre-COVID activity on face value, it was not on par with anticipated episodes of care for this quarter.

“If the pre-COVID growth trend had continued, we would have expected 927,061 admissions this quarter compared to the 920,738 that actually occurred. While the increase is promising it is still not enough to meet pent up demand and workforce remains the key limiter to a full return.”

Mr Roff said while the Federal Government had indicated steps to boost migration, it was time to increase the pace of workforce reform.

“Currently we have various states offering incentives and bonuses for nurses to work in their public hospital systems. This is simply cannabilising the existing scarce workforce rather than building for the future," he said.

"We call on the upcoming meeting of federal and state ministers to work together on a system-wide national approach to boost Australia’s health workforce and abandon short-term populist measures of dubious effectiveness.”

In its quarterly report, APRA said premium revenue had increased by 2.6 percent, along with hospital private health insurance membership increasing by 2.2 percent.

Membership in the 50 years old and over age groups increased by 2.3 percent (108,820 persons) while those 20-49 years old increased by 2.5 percent (103,830 persons).

Despite workforce issues in the sector, Mr Roff said Australians clearly valued the high-quality care they experienced in the private hospital sector, as evidenced by the continuing increase in people taking up private health insurance hospital cover.

“Private health insurers no doubt welcome the increase in income from the membership boost along with the $52 million in savings they have accumulated since the first tranche of Prostheses List cuts were introduced last July,” he said.