In Australia, hospital services are provided by both public and private hospitals.
The state and territory governments mainly own and manage public hospitals. Public acute hospitals mainly provide 'acute care' for short periods, although some provide longer term care, such as for rehabilitation. Public psychiatric hospitals specialise in the care of people with mental health problems, sometimes for long periods of time.
Private hospitals are mainly owned and managed by private organisations; either for-profit companies, or not-for-profit non-government organisations. They include day hospitals that provide services on a day-only basis, and hospitals that provide overnight care.
Between 2006–07 and 2010–11, the numbers of public acute hospitals and private hospitals were relatively stable.
In 2010–11, there were 1,340 hospitals in Australia:
- 735 public acute hospitals
- 17 public psychiatric hospitals
- 303 private free-standing day hospitals
- 285 other private hospitals.
The numbers for these hospitals in each state and territory are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Public and private hospitals, states and territories, 2010–11
|
NSW |
Vic |
Qld |
WA |
SA |
Tas |
ACT |
NT |
Total |
| Public hospitals |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Public acute hospitals |
218 |
150 |
166 |
93 |
78 |
22 |
3 |
5 |
735 |
| Public psychiatric hospitals |
8 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
.. |
.. |
17 |
| Total public hospitals |
226 |
151 |
170 |
94 |
80 |
23 |
3 |
5 |
752 |
| Private hospitals |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Private free-standing day hospital facilities |
91 |
85 |
53 |
34 |
28 |
2 |
9 |
1 |
303 |
| Other private hospitals |
86 |
81 |
53 |
24 |
31 |
6 |
3 |
1 |
285 |
| Total private hospitals |
177 |
166 |
106 |
58 |
59 |
8 |
12 |
2 |
588 |
| All hospitals |
403 |
317 |
276 |
152 |
139 |
31 |
15 |
7 |
1,340 |