New data shows the number of Australians with serious medical conditions is outpacing the capacity of Australia’s most common hospitals.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released its first national report of the year on Friday that found hospitals across the country are unable to handle the number and severity of new cases and the increasing need for specialist care.
It found the number for serious conditions in the population aged under 65 in 2015 was 3.1 million, up from 2.7 million in 2014.
“This is a significant increase over the previous year,” said AIHW chief executive and CEO Dr Jane Kelleher.
“There’s a big gap between what is being delivered and what we can manage in terms of what the public and the government is getting and the cost.”
In a report released last year, the AIHw found Australia’s healthcare system had become “too busy” to deal effectively with the rising demand for specialist medical care.
Dr Kelleer said the new report shows that “health systems across the board” were failing.
“We know that the system has been slow to adapt to the new conditions and it’s now becoming harder and harder to manage the workload,” she said.
“In some cases, we’ve seen hospitals in Melbourne and Sydney being able to handle up to 3,000 patients in a day, but that’s no longer the case in many other cities.”‘
We’re not getting the same care as the rest of the world’Dr Kenealy said while the number one issue facing hospitals was the increase in the number receiving treatment, the number suffering from conditions such as cancer was “a different story”.
“Our data shows that the number that are suffering from these conditions is more than double the number from other countries,” she told news.com.au.
“When you get into a system where there’s a high number of people with a serious condition and you have a high volume of people that are being treated in hospitals, then it’s not the system that’s doing a good job of delivering care.”
What you’re really seeing in some of these hospitals is the number is not being met, and that’s what we’re seeing in the national data.
“Dr Kellen said the national government should take the opportunity to improve care at a national level.”
It’s a bit of a national responsibility to try and make sure that we’re actually getting the kind of care that we need,” she added.”
But I think that’s going to take a national approach.
“Dr Katherine Loughlin, executive director of the Commonwealth Foundation for Health Research, said Australia’s “systematic failure” in providing better care for people with serious conditions had been exacerbated by the “bureaucratic inertia” of government.”
The lack of urgency in providing specialist care to patients with serious and complex conditions has been the major stumbling block for the development of Australia, as has the inability of state and territory governments to effectively deliver this care,” she wrote in a blog post.”
Despite the recent government’s commitment to increasing investment in health care and the implementation of new health-care systems, the national level has seen the numbers of people in care decline.
“Dr Loughlylin said Australia should look to other countries to emulate the successful system in the UK, the US and other developed nations.”
For the first time, a large proportion of the Australian population has experienced the sort of intensive care they experience in hospitals,” she explained.”
That’s a good thing.
“Topics:health,australia
