MORE Australians are being admitted to hospital and they're also waiting longer for elective surgery, the latest statistics show.
According to the Australian Hospital Statistics report, Australians had to wait an average 36 days in 2009/10 for planned elective surgery, two more days than the year before.
The rate of elective surgery overall has risen slightly - by 2.4 per cent or about 30 people for every 1000 each year.
The annual report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare monitors how the country's 1,326 hospitals are operating.
It showed that admissions in 2009/10 grew to 8.5 million, up from 8.1 million the year before.
That included 5.1 million admissions in public hospitals, and 3.5 million in private ones.
But it appears Australians are increasingly going private over public, with the latter rising by an average 3.5 per cent each year, compared to five per cent for private hospital admissions.
Stays have gone down - with patients spending an average 5.9 days in hospital, down from 6.2 days the previous four years.
There were 7.4 million accident and emergency services provided in public hospitals in 2009/10 compared to 7.2 million in 2008/09.
Of that, 70 per cent were seen within the recommended time depending on their injury, while there was a 100 per cent strike rate for those needing immediate treatment.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the statistics proved a $20 billion cash injection into the public health system was helping more patients get treated.
"For the first time ever, there has been over 600,000 elective surgery operations in the public system, thanks to Labor's funding boost," she said in a statement.
~ From- Daily Mercury (http://www.dailymercury.com.au)
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