Coronavirus: States pull all hospitals into the public system

State governments have clinched deals to guarantee funding to private hospitals, which will be fully integrated with the public system.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Picture: AAP

All state governments have clinched deals that will guarantee funding to private hospitals, which will be fully integrated with the public system in the fight against COVID-19.

The NSW government remains the only state still in final negotiations with private operators about what services will be covered but has already begun paying the hospitals for access to thousands of beds, including crucial ICU capacity.

All other states, including South Australia where the signing of a deal is imminent, have reached agreements on integration.

States have committed in principle to paying private hospitals for access to their full capacity.

The Victorian, Queensland and West Australian governments have all signed agreements with private hospitals following a decision of the national cabinet to publicly fund private hospitals with the joint resources of the commonwealth and the states.

The federal government announced last week it would contract private hospitals under a deal in which the commonwealth agreed to underwrite the hospitals with $1.3bn of funding.

State governments will enter into contracts with the private hospitals under which taxpayers will pay the private hospitals to open up 35,000 beds and provide access to more than 100,000 healthcare staff.

The final details of NSW’s agreement with private hospitals are still in negotiation. But NSW Health said public funding was already being provided to private hospitals.

“NSW Health has offered a non-binding agreement to all private hospital operators in NSW, and has commenced payments to fully fund their ongoing operations,” the statement said.

“NSW Health and private operators are in discussions about the services to be delivered under the NSW agreement, to ensure maximum hospital capacity for NSW in coming months.”

Under the state deals, public hospitals will have access to the entire capacity of the private health system. One-third of the nation’s total ICU bed capacity is in the private system.

Private hospitals will be on call to care for any patient, including COVID-19 patients, as public hospitals reach full capacity. They will be contracted by the states on a pay-per-service basis.

The Victorian government was the first state to sign deals with private hospitals where healthcare professionals in the private system, including doctors and nurses, porters, cleaners, cooks and security guards, remain employed.

The deal followed a funding guarantee from the commonwealth to ensure the viability of all private hospitals after the suspension of non-urgent surgery.

The Victorian government is spending $1.3bn to establish an extra 4000 ICU beds and purchase millions more masks, gloves and gowns to meet the expected surge in cases during the peak of the pandemic.