AMA opposes treating public patients in private hospitals

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that a significant investment in public hospital infrastructure and resources is needed to ensure that public patients waiting for elective surgery are to be treated in public hospitals in a timely way.

Dr Pesce said the AMA is strongly opposed to the treatment of public patients in private hospitals.

“Public patients should be treated in public hospitals,” Dr Pesce said.

“Moving them to private hospitals should only occur as a short term measure of last resort.

“The opportunistic plan being floated by the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) is only getting attention because our public hospitals have been under-funded and under-resourced for many years.

“Successive governments have failed to adequately invest in public hospital infrastructure and provide sufficient ongoing funding to meet current demand, and to properly plan for future service delivery.

“The AMA has not seen the APHA plan, which appears to overlook the need for doctors to treat these patients, nor have we been consulted about the idea of a scheme for private hospitals to systematically provide services to public patients.

“Such a scheme for the long term risks shifting much-needed medical professionals and resources out of the public system.

“To ensure the best possible solution for patient care, and to maintain the balance between the public and private sectors in our health care system, the Government must invest more in public hospitals.

“Public hospitals must have the capacity to not only treat patients, they must be supported to be strong and fertile training grounds for our future doctors.

“And they must also be properly funded to continue their vital research and development roles,” Dr Pesce said.

Supporting public hospitals is a key theme of the AMA Priority Investment Plan for Australia’s Health System.  A recommendation of the Plan is to implement an ongoing monitoring system (Bed Watch) that would transparently report on the number of new and existing beds that are available in public hospitals.  Bed Watch would also monitor other important factors related to hospital occupancy such as access block in emergency departments.

10 December 2009

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