$100m funding boost to funnel public patients through private hospitals

The state government has set aside $100 million to divert patients waiting for elective surgery in a public hospital through the private sector, with 10,000 additional patients expected to be treated under the plan before July.

Queensland Health’s most recent data found 66,632 patients were awaiting elective surgery in the public system.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the funding boost for the government’s Surgery Connect program – which provides state-funded subsidies on elective surgery at private hospitals – was in addition to the $100 million contributed by the former government in mid-2024.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls announces additional funding for elective surgery on Tuesday.Credit: Queensland government

The government expects the use of private sector capacity to expedite the delivery of cataract, tonsil and adenoid operations, as well as knee replacements.

“We will be working with more than 60 private partners to help deliver the boost to Surgery Connect across ENT, general surgery, orthopaedics, urology, ophthalmology, gynaecology and plastics,” Nicholls said.

The Australian Private Hospitals Association welcomed the move, amid financial pressures they attributed to an increasing share of patient fees going to insurance companies.

“Private hospitals are doing it particularly tough at the moment due to the health insurance industry underpaying the sector by over $3 billion over the last three years,” said APHA chief executive Brett Heffernan.

“Over recent years, what we’ve found is that, the health insurance industry has been paying between 81 and 84 cents in the dollar, and each percentage point constitutes hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Heffernan said the Surgery Connect program circumvented health insurance providers, meaning private sector hospitals and medical staff were “actually paid in full” for their services.

A spokeswoman for Private Healthcare Australia refuted Heffernan’s claims, saying independent government reporting showed health funds were not underpaying hospitals, and insurers did not “owe” hospitals extra funding.

“In 2023-24, health funds paid private hospitals more than $11.7 billion for members’ healthcare – 8 per cent more than the year before,” she said.

“Health funds are paying fair, competitive rates for hospital services across Australia. Any additional payments will drive up the cost of health insurance premiums for consumers.”

The state government’s funding announcement comes days after the government said seven satellite hospitals would be renamed satellite health centres.

Last Thursday, Nicholls said it could cost more than $200,000 to rename the seven facilities, but that Queensland Health would absorb the costs.

Releasing new ambulance ramping data on Tuesday, he maintained that the government was working to address “pinch points” in the state’s health system.

“Hospital ramping in Queensland for the last quarter, under the LNP, has dropped from the worst ever recorded as of June under Labor to 39.1 per cent – we are now below 40 per cent,” he said.

In June, the rate was reported at 45.5 per cent. This figure denotes the proportion of patients who were parked in an ambulance at a hospital for 30 minutes or longer before being admitted.

“Now, there are seasonal factors and variations, and that number may bounce around as a result of that,” Nicholls said.

He also announced a return to monthly reporting of ramping data from the current quarterly schedule.

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