Not-for-profit hospital operators are calling on the federal government to take the pressure off long public waitlists by paying for more patients to be treated privately and help subsidise soaring salaries, under the industry’s latest push to resolve the hospital funding crisis.

Catholic Health Australia, which represents 63 private hospitals, has also proposed a shake-up of the way patients are charged for hospital procedures with a fixed-price funding model, as well as forcing health insurers to contribute more funding.