Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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HOSPITALS

There were 593 private hospitals operating in Australia in 2010-11, up from 581 in 2009-10. This increase resulted from an unchanged number of Acute and psychiatric hospitals and an increase of 12 Free-standing day hospitals. The largest changes occurred in New South Wales, and Victoria, which both recorded 5 more Free standing day hospital facilities in 2010-11 than in 2009-10.

TABLE 1.1: PRIVATE HOSPITALS, Australia—2010–11
	Acute and psychiatric hospitals	Free-standing day hospital facilities	All private hospitals
New South Wales	86	97	183
Victoria	79	88	167
Queensland	54	53	107
South Australia	30	26	56
Western Australia	21	35	56
Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (a)	9	15	24
Australia	279	314	593
(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 2.2% from 27,748 in 2009-10 to 28,351 in 2010-11. The number of beds and chairs in Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 1.9% while those in Free-standing day hospitals increased by 4.8%.

Total patient separations were 3.2% higher overall in 2010-11 compared to 2009-10. There were 3.7 million patient separations from all private hospitals in 2010-11, compared with almost 3.6 million in 2009-10.

Around 55% of patients at both Acute and psychiatric hospitals and Free-standing day hospitals in 2010-11 were female. The number of male patients at Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 3.8%, compared with 3.0% growth in female patients, while at Free-standing day hospitals the number of female patients increased by 1.5% compared with 0.3% growth in the number of male patients.

The proportion of patients aged 65 and over in Australian private hospitals was increased from 38.1% in 2009-10 to 39.4% in 2010-11. The proportion of patients at Free-standing day hospitals aged 65 years and over increased from 39.0% of all patients to 41.8% of all patients. The proportion of patients at Acute and psychiatric hospitals who were aged 65 years and over increased from 37.9% to 38.8%.

Private hospitals provided nearly 8.9 million days of hospitalisation to patients in 2010-11, up 4.9% from 2009-10 (8.4 million). The largest contributor to this movement was a 5.3% increase in the number of patient days resulting from overnight-stay patients in Acute and psychiatric hospitals to 6.3 million days.

The number of operating theatres in Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 0.8% to 1,045 in 2010-11, while the number of theatres in Free-standing day hospitals increased by 11.5%.

Staff numbers (full-time equivalent) increased by 3.3% to 58,448 in 2010-11 compared with 2009-10 (56,560).

Total private hospital income increased by 8.8% to $10.7 billion in 2010-11, with the proportion of total income classified as patient income falling slightly from 96.0% to 95.5%. Total income from private Acute and psychiatric hospitals was $9.8 billion, which accounted for 92.4% of all private hospital income.

Total private hospital recurrent expenditure increased by 7.4% to $9.6 billion in 2010-11. For Acute and psychiatric hospitals, wages and salaries as a proportion of recurrent expenses fell to 50.6% in 2010-11, while for Free-standing day hospitals the proportion fell to 38.6%.

Gross capital expenditure in all private hospitals has increased by 13.5% between 2009-10 and 2010-11 to $838 million, with gross capital expenditure in Free-standing day hospitals increasing by 16.5% in this period to $50 million. Gross capital expenditure in Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 13.3% to $788 million.

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 2010-11 was 9.0%, up from 7.6% in 2009-10. The net operating margin for Free-standing day hospital facilities fell from 20.6% in 2009-10 to 18.6% in 2010-11.

Private Hospitals, Net operating margin: 2006-07 to 2010-11(a)

TABLE 1.2: PRIVATE HOSPITALS, Summary—2010–11
		Acute and psychiatric hospitals	Free-standing day hospital facilities	All private hospitals
Hospitals (no.)		279	314	593
Beds/Chairs (no.) (a)		25 394	2 957	28 351
Separations ('000)		2 822	885	3 707
Sex ('000) (b)
	Males	1 281	371	1 652
	Females	1 541	485	2 026
Aged 65 and over (%)		38.8	41.8	39.4
Patient days ('000)
	Same-day patient (c)	1 630	885	2 515
	Overnight-stay patient	6 336	0	6 336
	Total	7 966	885	8 852
Operating theatres		1 045	329	1 374
Co-located with a public hospital (no.)		36	5	41
Full-time equivalent staff (no.) (d)		55 053	3 395	58 448
Income (e)
	Total ($'000)	9 837 799	811 851	10 649 650
	Patient income (%) (f)	95.5	94.9	95.5
Expenditure (g)
	Total ($'000)	8 948 902	661 090	9 609 992
	Wages and salaries, including on-costs (%)	50.6	38.6	49.9
Gross Capital expenditure ($'000) (h)		787 675	50 254	837 929
Net Capital Expenditure ($'000) (h)		757 084	49 419	806 503
(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 2010-11 is the first year the ABS has had gross and net capital expenditure available for publication.

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