Epworth hospital begs public for donations

The private health sector faces a revenue rout from a coronavirus-led ban on elective surgery.

Epworth operates 11 private hospitals in Victoria and was founded 100 years ago. Picture: Mark Wilson

One of Australia’s leading private hospital groups, Epworth Healthcare, is tapping the public for donations as the private health sector faces a revenue rout from a coronavirus-led ban on elective surgery.

Epworth, a not-for-profit private hospital provider known for its AFL and groundbreaking robotic surgery, has issued an urgent plea to its donor base so it is “ready and able to provide the best critical care treatment” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The major revenue driver of private hospitals, elective surgery, has been cut as the federal government bans non-essential operations to free up the health system and preserve personal protective equipment to combat the pandemic.

While many private hospitals have struck funding agreements with state and territory governments to keep their doors open and staff employed, Epworth Medical Foundation executive director Scott Bulger said it needed more funds to ensure it continued to provide high-quality care.

“I am writing to you today in the utmost of urgency to ask you to make a donation so that Epworth is ready and able to provide the best critical care treatment for our patients and the community as we face the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mr Bulger said in a letter to patients and donors.

He said donations would be used to expand the hospital group’s intensive care unit and critical care facilities, buy more medical equipment and train staff in the management of corona­virus-infected patients.

“I understand that everyone in our community has in some way been impacted by this pandemic but the need is so great that I do need to ask those who can to donate and help care for those people who will become sick and unwell during this unprecedented medical crisis.

“There has not been a time while I have been at Epworth that we have needed your support more than we do right now. Perhaps there has never been a time we have needed your support so much.”

Epworth operates 11 private hospitals in Victoria and was founded 100 years ago.

Last month, the commonwealth agreed to provide at least $1.3bn to underwrite private hospitals around the country in a deal that will see more than 100,000 staff and 35,000 private hospital beds made available during the coronavirus crisis.

Australian Private Hospitals Association chief executive Michael Roff said that in the deal, hospital capacity would be offered under a cost-recovery basis.

“While the health system responds to the pandemic, a lot of what it normally does must be deferred. When the pandemic is over, we are going to need all of the capacity of the private hospital system to deal with the backlog of essential surgery. This deal means the private hospital system will be there to address that backlog,” Mr Roff said.

St Vincent’s Health Australia chief executive Toby Hall said no private hospital would be expecting to make a profit during the pandemic.

“Essentially what the federal government has done is it has said it’s going to deliver funding to allow the private health system to be contracted for any service, essentially at cost, and I think there’s a general acceptance that that’s a sensible way to operate,” Mr Hall said.