Public hospital waiting times.

One of the major points of criticism of our public hospital system is the wait in the queue to be scheduled for elective surgery.  In some cases, even urgent life threatening surgery can be delayed because of the unavailability of intensive care beds or restrictions on theatre time.

This would almost evaporate overnight - if the 580,000 insured patients who had their needs serviced in public hospitals last year had used their service provider to pay for a private hospital bed.

It seems peculiar that some people pay hefty insurance premiums for private cover, and then use the public system, but it all comes down to fear of what " the gap " is going to cost them.    In the public system, the entire cost comes from the public purse.   In a private hospital it is possible to be fully insured and still walk out the door to be confronted with a substantial bill.

One of the benefits of private health insurance is the ability of the insured to choose their own surgeon.  In the public sector, the surgeon is chosen by the hospital, and yet in much of the public sector the top surgeons also operate on public patients where their speciality is in short supply.

The weakness in the system seems to be the ability of people presenting at hospital to choose " public " or " private " definition.    They are not obliged to reveal that they are privately insured and so a whopping 580,000 opt for a public bed and clog up what is supposed to be a divided stream between public and private hospitals.

In recent years this " gap " in the charge system has been substantially closing.   The private hospitals have come to an " understanding " with doctors and most offer a pre-admission quote that will fully detail what costs will be involved - and in many cases the end sum is now " zero ".

Unfortunately, this is not getting through to many insured patients, hence the reliance on the public system to avoid expected costs.   There is little point in the government  forcing people to take out private health insurance if the public continues to avoid using private hospitals on cost grounds.

Perhaps the best way to fix the influx of insured patients to public hospitals rests with the admission people who are the first contact with intending new patients. They are in an ideal position to suggest to those with insurance that they can get private hospital treatment at no additional cost - and set up " the deal " !
Private hospitals with vacancies would surely welcome a public admissions officer making contact and arranging service for an insured person - with a guarantee that there will be " no gap " with the private service offered.

That is what " competition " is all about.   Matching up services to get the quickest result benefits both the public and private sectors.  If we can apply a little common sense to sorting out the private/public flow we all get a better health system !