Hospital Spending in Australia

Recurrent hospital expenditure in Australia for public and private hospitals combined topped $55 billion in 2013–14, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The report, Hospital resources 2013–14: Australian hospital statistics, shows that more than $44 billion was spent by public hospitals, and over $11 billion by private hospitals.
Other key findings included:
-More than $6 million went to emergency services, $18 million for outpatient care, and $22 million were for services such as pathology, pharmacy and community health services.
-Outpatient services comprised 39% of the data. Of these, 56% were for females and 30% were for people aged 65 and over. About 4% of outpatient services were for Indigenous Australians.
-The most common outpatient services included midwifery and maternity (1.7 million services) and orthopaedics (960,000 services).
'The average salary for nurses in public hospitals in 2013–14 was about $91,000 a year, and for salaried medical staff it was around $188,000.' said AIHW spokesperson Jenny Hargreaves, who heads the Institute's Hospitals, Resourcing and Classifications Group.
Salaries for public hospital staff increased by an average of 3.4% each year over the last five years, while expenditure for public hospitals was found to increase by 4.4% on average - a full percentage more than their private counterparts.
Today also marked the release of the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) Pricing Framework for Public Hospitals 2016-2017 for public comment, open until Monday 27 July 2015.
IHPA Chair Mr Shane Solomon said that the Pricing Framework for 2016-17 was an opportunity for stakeholders to engage with IHPA on a number of emerging issues in relation to pricing to help improve public hospital services across Australia.
“The Pricing Framework for 2016-17 includes further improvements for pricing bundling of services. The services that are being considered for bundled pricing in this year’s consultation paper include uncomplicated maternity care, stroke and joint replacement.”