HOSPITALS

There were 592 private hospitals operating in Australia in 2011-12, a net decrease of 1 from 2010-11. This decrease resulted from an increase of 2 in the number of Acute and psychiatric hospitals and a decrease of 3 Free-standing day hospitals.

TABLE 1.1: PRIVATE HOSPITALS, Australia—2011–12
	Acute and psychiatric hospitals	Free-standing day hospital facilities	All private hospitals
New South Wales	89	96	185
Victoria	79	85	164
Queensland	54	53	107
South Australia	28	26	54
Western Australia	22	35	57
Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (a)	9	16	25
Australia	281	311	592
(a) Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory have been aggregated to protect the confidentiality of the small number of hospitals in these states/territories.

The number of available beds and chairs increased by 2.3% from 28,351 in 2010-11 to 29,004 in 2011-12. The number of beds and chairs in Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 2.5% while those in Free-standing day hospitals increased by 0.5%.

Total patient separations were 5.2% higher overall in 2011-12 compared to 2010-11. There were 3.9 million patient separations from all private hospitals in 2011-12, compared with 3.7 million in 2010-11.

The proportion of patients aged 65 and over in Australian private hospitals increased from 39.4% in 2010-11 to 39.6% in 2011-12. The proportion of patients at Free-standing day hospitals aged 65 years and over decreased from 41.8% of all patients to 40.4% of all patients. The proportion of patients at Acute and psychiatric hospitals who were aged 65 years and over increased from 38.8% to 39.4%.

Private hospitals provided nearly 9.0 million days of hospitalisation to patients in 2011-12, up 1.7% from 2010-11 (8.9 million). The largest contributor to this movement was a 7.3% increase in the number of same day patients in Acute and psychiatric hospitals.

The number of operating theatres in Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 0.6% to 1,051 in 2011-12, while the number of theatres in Free-standing day hospitals decreased by 2.4%.

Staff numbers (full-time equivalent) decreased by 1.6% to 57,495 in 2011-12 compared with 2010-11 (58,448).

Total private hospital income increased by 5.4% to $11.2 billion in 2011-12, with the proportion of total income classified as patient income remaining stable at 95.5%. Total income from private Acute and psychiatric hospitals was $10.4 billion, which accounted for 92.2% of all private hospital income.

Total private hospital recurrent expenditure increased by 4.5% to $10.0 billion in 2011-12. For Acute and psychiatric hospitals, wages and salaries as a proportion of recurrent expenses decreased to 48.6% in 2011-12, while for Free-standing day hospitals the proportion increased to 41.3%.

TABLE 1.2: PRIVATE HOSPITALS, Summary—2011–12
		Acute and psychiatric hospitals	Free-standing day hospital facilities	All private hospitals
Hospitals (no.)		281	311	592
Beds/Chairs (no.) (a)		26 031	2 973	29 004
Separations ('000)		2 965	934	3 899
Sex ('000) (b)
	Males	1 328	403	1 731
	Females	1 612	507	2 119
Aged 65 and over (%)		39.4	40.4	39.6
Patient days ('000)
	Same-day patient (c)	1 749	934	2 683
	Overnight-stay patient	6 316	0	6 316
	Total	8 066	934	8 999
Operating theatres		1 051	321	1 372
Co-located with a public hospital (no.)		41	9	50
Full-time equivalent staff (no.) (d)		53 850	3 645	57 495
Income (e)
	Total ($'000)	10 352 330	875 578	11 227 908
	Patient income (%) (f)	95.5	95.7	95.5
Expenditure (g)
	Total ($'000)	9 339 217	704 001	10 043 218
	Wages and salaries, including on-costs (%)	48.6	41.3	48.1
Gross Capital expenditure ($'000) (h)		np	np	np
Net Capital Expenditure ($'000) (h)		np	np	np
(a) Available beds/chairs (average for the year). (b) Excludes patients with sex not stated, therefore sum may not add to total separations. (c) Same-day patients are counted as having a stay of one day. (d) Staff represented are typical full-time equivalent numbers for the year. Full-time equivalent represents the sum of full-time staff and full-time equivalent of part-time staff. See Glossary for further information. (e) Income includes income from patients, recoveries and other income such as investment income and income from charities, bequests, meals and accommodation but excludes income payments from state and territory governments. See Glossary for further information. (f) Includes income received by, and due to, the hospital in respect of patient liability for accommodation and other fees. See Glossary for further information. (g) Expenditure refers to expenditure on goods and services, which does not result in the creation or acquisition of fixed assets (new or second-hand). See Glossary for further information. (h) Capital expenditure refers to expenditure in a period on the acquisition or enhancement of an asset (excluding financial assets). See Glossary for further information. Note that gross and net capital expenditure has not been published for 2011-12. See Explanatory Note 40 for further information.

Net operating margin

Net operating margin is derived by subtracting recurrent expenditure from income and expressing the result as a proportion of income. The net operating margin for Acute and psychiatric hospitals during 2011-12 was 9.8%, up from 9.0% in 2010-11. The net operating margin for Free-standing day hospital facilities increased from 18.9% in 2010-11 to 19.6% in 2011-12.


Private Hospitals, Net operating margin: 2007-08 to 2011-12(a)

(a) Data for the 2007–08 reference year are not available. See Explanatory Note 4.

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