In what could be great news for many Older Australians living with pain and discomfort, private hospitals want to “fast track” the pent-up demand for elective surgeries.
“Private hospitals are willing and able to help State Governments meet the demand for elective surgery. It is not uncommon for public hospitals to enlist the assistance of the private sector to deliver much needed care to patients.
“While ‘elective’ might suggest the surgery isn’t urgent, if you can’t walk because you are waiting for a hip replacement, ‘elective’ becomes ‘urgent’ very quickly,” said Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) SA President and sportsmed hospital CEO Alan Morrison.
Mr Morrison said waiting lists for elective surgery had blown out across Australia, with hospital on standby for COVID-19 cases.
Almost 6,000 patients in NSW had been waiting longer than clinically recommended for their elective procedures on the last day of 2020, more than five times the number of patients waiting too long at the end of 2019 (1144 people).
The South Australian Government committed in this week’s Budget to reducing its elective surgery lists. APHA believes improved longer-term demand management planning in consultation with the private hospital sector would deliver more benefits to patients in SA.
“It is easy to predict that in winter we will see an increase in public hospital admissions. That will mean elective surgery is bumped. If private hospitals were scheduled to perform those elective surgeries, which they are happy to support public services to do, with plenty of notice to prepare and set aside theatre time, all would run much more smoothly,” said Mr Morrison.
“At the moment short notice periods have meant the private hospital sector hasn’t been able to support the public system as we would have liked but the sector remains committed to partnering for the benefit of the community.”
Good to know.
