CANBERRA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Australia's hospitals remain under severe strain, the nation's peak doctors' body has warned, with patients facing long waits for emergency care and essential surgery.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) on Thursday published its annual report on the performance of public hospitals, revealing that the proportion of emergency department patients who complete their visit within the recommended four hours has fallen to a record-low.
According to the report, 53 percent of emergency department patients completed their visits within four hours in 2024-25, down from 55 percent in 2023-24 and 73 percent in 2015-16.
The median wait time for planned surgeries fell for the second straight year from 46 days in 2023-24 to 45 days in 2024-25, but remained significantly higher than the 35 days reported in 2014-15.
The AMA report noted modest improvements in some areas, including an increase in the total number of public hospital beds, but said that overall performance remains significantly worse than it was a decade ago.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in January announced an extra 25 billion Australian dollars (17.8 billion U.S. dollars) in federal government funding for hospitals over the next five years.
However, AMA President Danielle McMullen said in a statement on Thursday that modeling showed that additional funding of at least 34 billion AUD (24.2 billion dollars) would be required over the same period.
"Our costings suggest it may not be enough to get our public hospitals out of the cycle of crisis they've been in," she said of the government funding commitment.
The report said that hospital bed availability per person has stagnated, and capacity for older Australians has fallen to the lowest level on record. ■
