Rate of Admissions Increasing Faster in Private Hospitals Increasing Faster than

By Petrina Smith
Thursday, 19 March, 2015

A new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report shows the rate of admissions to private hospitals is increasing faster than admissions to public hospitals.
The AIHW report, Admitted patient care 2013-14: Australian hospital statistics, shows that of the 9.7 million admissions to hospitals in 2013-2014, 5.7 million were in public hospitals and 4 million were in private hospitals.
AIHW spokesperson Jenny Hargreaves said "Between 2009-10 and 2013-14, the number of admissions increased by three per cent on average each year for public hospitals and 3.6 per cent for private hospitals".

In total, the 9.7 million hospital admissions in 2013-14 were associated with almost 27.9 million days of patient care-18.8 million and 9.1 million in public and private hospitals, respectively.
'Between 2009-10 and 2013-14, the number of days of patient care increased at a slower rate than admissions-by about one per cent each year,' Ms Hargreaves said.
'Indigenous Australians were hospitalised at more than twice the rate of other Australians,' Ms Hargreaves said.
The report shows that about one in four admissions involved surgery, and 60 per cent of these occurred in private hospitals.
"About six per cent of hospitalisations were potentially preventable and a further six per cent were for injury or poisoning,"Ms Hargreaves said.
In 2013-14, the most common single reason for care was dialysis for kidney disease (1.3 million admissions) and these increased by 3.9% on average each year between 2009-10 and 2013-14.
For the first time, information is included on intensive care. In 2013-14, about two per cent of public hospital admissions involved a stay in an intensive care unit, with an average length of stay of just under four days.