Sunshine Coast University Hospital criticised over private health practices
A major Queensland public hospital has come under fire over a leaked email that reminds staff it is not their job to fill the wait lists of private surgeons.
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A major Queensland public hospital has come under fire over a leaked email that reminds staff it is not their job to fill the wait lists of private surgeons.
The email to employees of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital reminds the public hospital staff it is “not your job” to fill the wait lists of private surgeons.
According to the email, seen by this publication, staff are instructed to not offer private consultants to private health patients “unless specifically requested”.
“Trauma cases with private insurance should first be offered to the treating consultant responsible for the patient, but has to be specialty specific. Otherwise they get offered to other consultants in the department,” the email stated.
“If no one is available to take the patient privately, the patient gets allocated a spot on the trauma list at SUCH. Cases from SUCH should not be offered to consultants who are not employed by the SCHHS unless specifically requested by the patient. Remember it is not your job to fill up a surgeons private list.”
Private Healthcare Australia CEO Dr Rachel David criticised the orders and said recent data showed one in 10 public hospital beds were filled with private patients, which could lead to an increase in revenue for public hospitals.
“There has been growing concern about (people using) their health insurance in public hospitals even though the cost of these people’s care is already fully covered by Medicare,” Dr David said.
“(This raises) additional revenue from health insurers who are billed when a patient consents to using their insurance in a public hospital. This was called out in the mid term review of the National Healthcare Reform Agreements conducted by Rosemary Huxtable last year.”
Dr David said the practice put the public hospital under more strain and created longer wait times.
“The trend also means that uninsured people relying on public hospitals wait longer for care. If one in 10 public hospital beds are filled with private patients, public patients wait longer, particularly for elective surgery,” Dr David said.
“It does not make sense for public hospitals to be doing this when there are usually private hospitals with empty beds nearby.”
A Sunshine Coast University Hospital spokeswoman said private health patients were able to request care from the private sector at any time.
“Patients presenting to Sunshine Coast Health who have private health insurance have the choice to be treated privately if they wish. When a patient is being triaged in the emergency department, they are asked if they have private health insurance and would like to be transferred to the private sector for their care,” she said.
“If so, the emergency department will make attempts to refer the patient to a private surgeon.
“If no private surgeons are available in a timely manner, the patient will be referred to one of our surgical teams to commence care.
“If at any point during their stay the patient indicates they would like to be treated privately and they have identified a private surgeon with capacity to take over their care, we facilitate this request.”
The spokeswoman also said a nurse liaison role was expected to be created in early 2025 to ensure more efficient communication between the public and private system in the region.
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