Compare by state: Wait times for GPs, dentists, ambulance and surgery
Australia’s health system is on the brink of collapse after three years of Covid. Compare wait times by state.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The shocking state of the nation’s health system has been laid bare in a new report showing soaring hospital waiting lists and massive delays for GP appointments, ambulances and dental care.
The number of young people accessing mental health care has almost doubled to 10 per cent and thousands of patients are unable to afford a doctor or their medicine.
A day before premiers meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to thrash out a deal to reform Medicare, the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services reveals that nationally nearly half (39.1 per cent) those who need an urgent GP appointment are waiting more than 24 hours.
Tasmanians are the worst off, with 49.2 per cent of patients waiting more than 24 hours. In South Australia, it is 45 per cent, in NSW 40.3 per cent, Victoria 38.6 per cent, Queensland 35 per cent, and the NT 39.1 per cent.
Overall, 23.4 per cent of people who saw a GP waited longer than they felt was acceptable to get an appointment.
As bulk billing plunges, the number of patients who didn’t see a GP due to cost rose from 2.4 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
The figure was again highest in Tasmania (7.6 per cent), followed by NSW (4.4 per cent), Victoria (3.7 per cent), Queensland (3.5 per cent), South Australia (2.9 per cent) and the NT (3.4 per cent).
Nationally in 2021-22, only 65.8 per cent of patients were fully bulk billed, “a reversal of the upward trend over the previous nine years of reported data”, the report revealed.
Out-of-pocket costs were highest for specialists ($98), followed by allied health services ($61) and GPs ($42).
As Health Minister Mark Butler prepares to announce reforms to general practice, News Corp last week exposed some GPs now charging $100 for a standard appointment.
Covid has brought the already strained public hospital system to its knees, with the new report showing a number of people waiting for elective surgery.
The delay for hip and knee replacements alone leapt 74 per cent nationally over the last decade to more than 166,000 people.
Fewer people (622,988) received elective surgery in 2021-2022 than 10 years ago in 2012-13 (699,023).
Hospital emergency department (ED) performance continued to decline with the proportion of patients staying for four hours or less in an emergency department down to 60.9 per cent in 2021-22, from 73.2 per cent in 2015-16.
In NSW 64.2 per cent of ED patients were seen within four hours or less, in Victoria 55.3 per cent, Queensland 61.4 per cent, South Australia 57.6 per cent, Tasmania 55.2 per cent and the NT 58.8 per cent.
Ambulance services have been unable to cope with extra pressures caused by the pandemic.
South Australia had the worst ambulance performance, with one in 10 patients waiting up to 71.3 minutes for an ambulance in a code 1 emergency, in NSW the wait almost doubled to 41.4 minutes, Victoria 24 minutes, Queensland 25.4 minutes, Tasmania 30.4 minutes and the NT 23.6 minutes.
Nationally, in 2021-22, only 81.3 per cent of calls from triple-0 calls were answered by ambulance services in 10 seconds or less, a fall from 90.8 per cent in 2020-21 and the lowest number in a decade.
Waiting times for public dental care have reached obscene levels.
Tasmania has the longest dental care waiting times in the nation. Half of all patients are waiting more than 1281 days for general dental care.
In NSW, the wait time rose to 487 days, in Victoria it nearly doubled to 800 days, but in Queensland the wait times fell slightly to 666 days, in South Australia they more than halved to 189 days, and in the NT they halved to 666 days.
The reports reveals stressed GPs are failing on the basics, with only 50.5 per cent of people with diabetes having their blood sugar levels below the recommended seven per cent and only 77.5 per cent had had their blood sugar levels tested in the last 12 months.
It’s one reason hospitalisations for blindness and limb amputations connection to diabetes are so high.
Only a third of people with asthma had a written asthma management plan, only 41 per cent of eligible people had been screened for bowel cancer, 47.1 per cent for breast cancer and 62.5 per cent for cervical cancer.
The good news is that more than 90 per cent of children were immunised against infectious diseases.
Scarred by Covid lockdowns, the number of young people using Medicare subsidised mental health care services soared at an alarming rate, up from 5.6 per cent in 2012-13 to 10 per cent in 2021-22. Nationally, 17.7 per cent of young people aged 18–24 years received MBS subsidised primary health care in 2021-22
However, with one in three psychologists closing their books due to soaring demand and inadequate Medicare rebates, many missed out on the care they needed.
Nationally in 2021-22, 21.7 per cent of people with a mental illness did not see a psychologist, psychiatrist and other mental health professionals due to cost.
The number of people with a mental illness who did not see a psychiatrist due to cost was 25.6 per cent in NSW, 23.6 per cent in Victoria, 18.7 per cent in Queensland, 21.7 per cent in South Australia, 15.4 per cent in Tasmania and 26.3 per cent in the NT.
More Coverage
Originally published as Compare by state: Wait times for GPs, dentists, ambulance and surgery
Fears over push for major workplace change
A major change to workplace definitions are sparking fears workers could wind up with “less rights” and be “unfairly sacked”.
Oasis tickets: Drastic lengths fans are going to
With queues stretching into the tens of thousands online, some fans have resorted to extraordinary measures to try and secure a ticket to the British rockers’ Aussie shows. Here’s what you need to know.