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Patients are paying the price for the Victoria government's 'addiction' to health insurance revenue, says Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) CEO Brett Heffernan.
Data released by the Victorian Agency for Health Information for the July to September 2024 quarter showed a seven percent rise in planned surgery waiting lists.
"Clearly, Victoria's public hospital system is groaning under the weight of 61,500 people on its waiting lists," Mr Heffernan said.
"Last year, public hospitals admitted 144,726 private patients, who were able to jump the queue because state governments are addicted to the extra revenue they receive.
"In too many cases, as public patients get shunted down the list while private patients get direct access, those waiting see their conditions deteriorate, they develop co-morbidities and their mental health can suffer as a result."
Mr Heffernan said the Victoria government should prioritise public patients over insurance money and use private hospitals to cut the growing surgery backlog.
"Private hospitals are ready, willing and able to take these patients on and help the Victorian government solve their waiting-list problem," he said.
"Making people wait, when there is a solution to hand, doesn't make any sense. There are established relationships between the public and private hospital systems, it should be a no-brainer to help those people out by putting them into the private system.
"While more public hospitals are reaching out to their private hospital colleagues for support to level out waiting lists, this system is not centralised at the state level, making the uptake patchy and unhelpful for patients, or to solve the problem."
Epworth HealthCare worked closely with Victoria's Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic
Mr Heffernan said private hospitals had shown their ability to relieve Victoria's public health burden by taking on elective and other patients, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He urged Victoria to enlist the private hospital sector for help now.
"While waiting lists for procedures grow, there were more than 144,000 Victorians treated in the public system as private patients in 2022-23. These are patients who should be treated in private hospitals," Mr Heffernan said.
"The effect of private patients in public hospitals is to contribute to public elective surgery waiting lists, leaving those who have no choice waiting longer for care with decreasing quality of life.
"These procedures are necessary, just not life-threatening. They are surgeries like cataracts, hips and knee surgery impacting Australian's ability to see and move around freely. They are needed. Making public patients wait for surgery to make a buck out of privately-insured people is unconscionable."
Mr Heffernan said more and more public hospitals were raising revenue through privately-insured patients rather than delivering on their core objective under Medicare.
"The public health system was designed to provide healthcare to all Australians regardless of their capacity to pay," he said.
"Unfortunately, the public hospitals are making a rod for their own backs – and penalising their patients – by continuing to choose private health insurance revenue over patients' clinical care needs."
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