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Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson has announced a four-year election policy to divert public hospital patients to private facilities for elective procedures at no cost. The plan aims to provide 25,000 additional surgeries annually and halve Victoria's growing waiting list through partnerships with more than 100 private hospitals and day surgery centres.
Thousands of public hospital patients would be diverted to private hospitals for surgical procedures – without paying any fees – under a $1.27 billion state opposition plan to tackle Victoria’s ballooning elective surgery waitlist.
Liberal leader Jess Wilson said the election policy, which she will announce on Sunday, would deliver an extra 25,000 surgeries a year in partnership with more than 100 private hospitals and day surgeries. Opposition Leader Jess Wilson’s election commitment is designed to halve the elective surgery waiting list. The program is based on a scheme operating in Queensland and would mostly be used for hip and knee replacements, gynaecological procedures, cataracts, hernia repairs, gastroscopies and colonoscopies.
Victoria’s elective surgery waitlist has grown from 58,062 to 68,730 over the past 12 months, according to the Department of Health. The state Labor government previously used private hospital capacity to try to clear the waitlist after the COVID-19 pandemic.ahead of time, as the major parties gear up for next month’s state election.
She said the cost of program – totalling $1.27 billion over four years – would be wholly offset by winding up Breakthrough Victoria, the“Under Labor, too many Victorians are waiting in pain and with their lives on hold for vital surgery – but my team has a plan to fix it,” the Opposition Leader said in a statement.
“A Liberal and Nationals government will halve the elective surgery waitlist and deliver a healthcare system that works for Victorians. ” The private hospital sector – which is using just 64 per cent of its beds, according to a recent Grattan Institute analysis – welcomed the opposition’s pre-election commitment.
Australian Private Hospitals Association chief executive Brett Heffernan said it was a practical solution to tackling public hospital waiting lists, which had“Enlisting the specialist surgical capacity of Victorian private hospitals to treat public patients on waiting lists just makes sense,” he said.
“For patients, this is about getting the surgery they need sooner rather than spending longer on a waiting list. For the public system, it means reducing pressure by using hospital capacity that already exists. ” Orthopaedic surgeon Dr John Cunningham said the longer people waited for surgery, the weaker and more worn down they became.
“Every month on a waiting list is a month of someone’s life on hold,” he said. “Elective doesn’t mean optional. It means it can be planned. These operations give people their lives back.
”Some private hospitals have reported financial difficulties caused by softer patient demand, rising out-of-pocket specialist fees, and cost-of-living pressures. Earlier this week, Australia’s largest private hospital operator, Ramsay Health Care, called for multi-year partnerships that would allow private hospitals to treat more public patients. But health insurers are likely to take a more cautious position as they do not want to jeopardise rapid treatment in private hospitals for insured patients.
There are concerns this could devalue private health insurance.funding non-urgent public surgeries in private hospitalsAt least one Victorian public hospital, the Alfred, is still sending patients to the private sector to reduce its bloated surgical waiting lists. According to hospital sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail internal matters, The Alfred has been diverting up to 1000 patients a year to Cabrini since the pandemic for colonoscopies and gastroscopies.
The public hospital has refused to say how much taxpayer money is being spent on these surgeries, or how many of its patients have been diverted to the private hospital. It also refused to release this information under Freedom of Information laws following a request fromlast year, arguing that the information was commercial and its disclosure could disadvantage the health service.
Doctors at Cabrini have raised concerns about the government’s initiative, saying it disadvantages privately insured patients who are treated alongside public patients. They claim the initiative devalues private health insurance and puts pressure on the private hospital’s equipment and space.
“They have spent their entire life paying insurance and public patients are getting exactly the same service at the same place,” said one source, who did not want to be identified. A spokesperson for Cabrini told this masthead in November that the hospital took on work only within its available capacity levels to “ensure no impact on private patients”. Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the Coalition’s policy would “put patients first”.
“We will give them a choice, at no cost and simply by using capacity that we know already exists,” she said. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights.
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