Private care for wait list patients

The State Government is promising a major shake-up of how it manages elective surgery waiting lists, including paying for public patients to be treated in private hospitals, in the wake of horror figures for January.

But the move to fast-track more than 2200 West Australians who have waited longer than recommended for their surgery will not mean extra money for the system. Instead, individual hospitals face losing some of their bulk funding when patients waiting on their books are transferred to other hospitals.

From today, patients classified as over-boundary on waiting lists or approaching that time will be offered their operations at other hospitals with spare capacity, including private hospitals.

Health Minister Kim Hames said the plan to transfer patients to other hospitals would encourage doctors and hospitals to carry out the procedures they were expected to manage and funded accordingly.

He said the Government was talking to several private hospitals about treating public patients. The West Australian understands three hospitals have already agreed to take on public patients.

Dr Hames said he expected some criticism about treating public patients in private hospitals but he believed patients waiting too long for their operations deserved better.

He said he was "very disappointed" the number of patients waiting for surgery jumped to almost 16,000 at the end of January, the highest number since May 2007.

There were 750 fewer operations done in January compared to the same time last year, which Dr Hames blamed on hospital maintenance and upgrades, staff being on leave and hospitals taking their foot off the pedal because they had met their targets for 2009.

"I know the West Australian public will not view this as acceptable, and neither do I, and that's why we are taking this action to make sure patients undergo surgery according to clinical need," he said.

"It's correct to say our traditional drop in the number of surgeries carried out was more severe than in previous years, however, our early February figures show we are already back on track."

Dr Hames said that under the new plan patients waiting too long for their surgery or about to go over-boundary at a hospital would become a "free-for-all" and the money assigned for their operation would be offered to any hospital, public or private, which could do the surgery quickly.

Australian Medical Association WA president Gary Geelhoed said he welcomed the Government trying to reduce waiting lists and doing the right thing by patients but did not support treating public patients in private hospitals.

"Ultimately it's corrosive of the private health system because people with health insurance might start to think why bother," he said.

"We think the blow-out in the elective surgery waiting lists is more to do with budgetary pressures and brakes on the system, so this is more a band-aid measure. The Government would be better off putting more resources into the public system."