• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

STAFF

There were 55,053 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff employed at Acute and psychiatric hospitals in Australia during 2010-11, an increase of 3.1% from 2009-10. Victoria employed the most FTE staff, with 15,260 (up 0.3% from 2009-10), ahead of New South Wales, which employed 14,132 FTE staff (up 5.6% from 2009-10). Victoria also employed the most FTE nursing staff, administrative and clerical staff, and diagnostic and allied health professionals of any state, but New South Wales employed the most salaried medical professionals.

Nursing staff as a proportion of all staff varied from 55.1% in New South Wales to 62.6% of all staff in South Australia on an FTE basis. The proportion of all nursing staff who were registered nurses did not vary greatly between the States, ranging from 81.7% in South Australia to 83.8% in New South Wales.

There was little variation between the states in the number of FTE nursing staff per occupied bed, while the number of FTE staff per occupied bed varied between 2.0 in South Australia and 2.3 in Victoria.

Table 2.11 PRIVATE ACUTE AND PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS, Staffing (a) — States and territories — 2010-11
		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas., NT & ACT(b)	Aus.
Number of Full Time Equivalent Staff
Salaried medical professionals(c)		251	189	180	40	np	np	963
Diagnostic and allied health professionals		777	925	522	111	np	np	2 812
Full time equivalent nursing staff (d)(e)
	Registered nurses	6 528	7 294	5 959	1 990	np	np	26 089
	Enrolled nurses	1 258	1 430	1 320	446	np	np	5 195
	Total	7 786	8 724	7 279	2 436	np	np	31 284
Clinical support staff		1 203	1 108	893	143	np	np	4 156
Administrative and clerical staff		1 882	2 134	1 674	466	np	np	7 472
Domestic and other staff		2 233	2 180	1 954	696	np	np	8 366
Total FTE staff (f)		14 132	15 260	12 502	3 892	np	np	55 053
Average Number of Full-Time Equivalent Staff Per Occupied Bed (g)
Full time equivalent nursing staff (d)(e)
	Registered nurses	1.0	1.1	1.0	1.0	np	np	1.0
	Enrolled nurses	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	np	np	0.2
	Total	1.2	1.3	1.2	1.3	np	np	1.2
Other (h)		0.9	1.0	0.9	0.8	np	np	0.9
Total FTE staff (f)		2.1	2.3	2.1	2.0	np	np	2.2
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated (a) Includes Full-time equivalent staff. Full-time equivalent represents the sum of full-time staff and the full-time equivalent of part-time staff. See Glossary for further details. (b) Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have been aggregated to protect the confidentiality of the small number of hospitals in these states/territories. (c) Excludes visiting/consulting medical officers (d) Includes nurses in operating theatres, labour wards, psychiatric units, alcohol and drug rehabilitation units, other special care units, and emergency departments and units. (e) Includes contract staff sourced from employment agencies but paid via the hospital payroll. See Explanatory Note 40 for further information. (f) Figures have been rounded and discrepancies may occur between totals and the sums of the component items. (g) Calculated by dividing the number of FTE staff by the number of occupied beds. The number of occupied beds is calculated by multiplying the number of average available beds by the occupancy rate. See Bed occupancy rate in Glossary for more information. (h) Including salaried medical officers and other diagnostic health professionals, administrative, domestic and other staff.