Home » Media Centre » Victorian hospitals' cash grab slammed

Victorian hospitals' cash grab slammed

Friday 21st June, 2019

Friday, 21 June 2019

Victorian hospitals' cash grab slammed
The Victorian Auditor-General has slammed the state's public hospitals for their blatant cash grab of private
insurance benefits, providing public equipment, theatres and staff for private work.

The report, Managing private medical practice in public hospitals, said there was evidence of private work
being undertaken in public hospitals without any recognised cost-benefit to the state.

Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) CEO Mr Michael Roff said the report highlighted a
perverse set of circumstances where Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) policy settings
have led to practices against the interests of an efficient system and put patients last. One in eight Victorian
public hospital beds is given over to the treatment of private patients.

"The report makes plain the DHHS views private work as a revenue source. Public hospitals are given
specific targets and incentivised to coerce patients into private treatment. They are supposed to ensure that
patients give consent – according to the Auditor-General – this is not happening.

"The argument from the DHHS that allowing private practice in public hospitals is a recruitment and
retention tool is also debunked in the report," he said.

The report finds the practice, particularly if private patients are put ahead of public patients in waiting list
queues, puts the DHHS in breach of the National Health Reform Agreement and could result in the Federal
Government asking for its money back.

"There is plenty of additional data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that tells us that
private patients are given preferential treatment ahead of public patients in the public system. The median
wait time for elective surgery in Victorian public hospitals is 30 days but private patients in public hospitals
get surgery in a median of just 19 days.

"It is obvious that the Auditor-General agrees, based on the recommendation for the Department to provide
guidance to health services not to do this. Not only is it against the agreement with the Federal
Government, it is also against the principles of Medicare," he said.

Mr Roff said public patients are being sidelined by the very system that was set up to help them.

"The APHA urges the Commonwealth Auditor-General to examine this issue from the perspective of states
shifting costs to the Commonwealth. This report will also support Health Minister Greg Hunt's efforts to
address this issue through the next health funding agreement."
Mr Roff said it was shocking that no cost-benefit analysis of these practices had been undertaken to ensure
taxpayers money was well spent, and spent on those Victorians who need the public hospital to be working
for them.

"These are publicly funded hospitals actively seeking out ways to make money, rather than focusing on
caring for public patients, it's outrageous. We encourage the Department to take up the Auditor-General's
recommendations immediately," he said.

Level 3 /11 National Circ, Barton ACT 2600. PO Box 4502, Kingston ACT 2604. [T] 02 6273 9000 [F] 02 6273 7000
[E] [W] www.apha.org.au [FB] ValuingPrivateHospitals [Twitter] @priv8hospitals
ABN 82 008 623 809

-ENDSMedia contact: Frith Rayner, Director Communications and Marketing, 0413 971 999
Report: www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/managing-private-medical-practice-public-hospital
The Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) is the peak industry body representing the private hospital and day surgery
sector. The private hospital sector treats 3.69 million patients a year, including treatment of more than a third of chemotherapy, 60
percent of all surgery, 74 percent of all elective musculoskeletal surgery and 79 percent of rehabilitation.

Next Media Centre:
23/6/2019 Victorian public hospital review welcomed

Previous Media Centre:
23/5/2019 Elective waiting times up as public hospitals put profit first