Public hospital report card 2017

The AMA public hospital report card presents key data on public hospitals published by the Commonwealth, year on year. It uses this published data to assess the performance and capacity of our public hospitals to meet the community’s need for hospital services. The AMA has consistently called for increased funding of the things that work in health care-prevention, general practice, acute care, and a strong private medical care sector. The strategy should be about investing in the parts of the health system that will deliver better health outcomes. Public hospitals are a critical part of our health system. Yet public hospitals are facing a funding crisis that is rapidly eroding their capacity to provide essential services to the public. We have been waiting almost two years to have the Commonwealth’s unilateral cuts to public hospital funding reversed. Now we have an inadequate short-term fix and a further three years to wait before governments deliver a long-term solution to the ongoing need for sufficient and certain public hospital funding. The failure of governments to provide sufficient funding for public hospitals is choking their capacity to provide services to the public. Public hospitals provide essential health care services across the community. Funding for public hospitals is an essential investment in the health of the Australian population, and therefore in the capacity of Australians to participate in the workforce and as members of society. Funding public hospitals is not discretionary