Admitted patient workforce

In the data visualisation below, you can explore information on the staff working in public hospitals for 2020–21 and private hospitals for 2016–17, including details on the numbers of full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff.

Highlights

Public hospitals

In 2020–21:

• there were 422,000 FTE staff in public hospitals
• Nurses accounted for 2 in 5 (41%, 175,000) FTE staff
• Salaried medical officers accounted for 1 in 10 (12%, 52,200) FTE staff.

Between 2019–20 and 2020–21:

• there was a 5.4% increase in the number of FTE staff in public hospitals
• the number of Salaried medical officers increased by 4.9% and Nurses increased by 5.1%
• the average salary for staff employed in providing public hospital services did not significantly change
• average salaries for Salaried medical officers in public hospitals increased by 1.2%
• average salaries for nurses decreased by 0.4%.

Private hospitals 

In 2016–17 (most recent available data):

• there were 69,300 FTE staff in private hospitals
• 1,400 FTE Salaried medical professionals were reported by private hospitals, accounting for 2% of FTE staff in both private free-standing day hospital facilities and private hospitals not specialising in same-day care
• 38,300 FTE Nurses were reported by private hospitals, accounting for 52% of FTE staff in private free-standing day hospital facilities and 56% of FTE staff in other private hospitals.