Admitted patient workforce

In the data visualisation below, you can explore information on the numbers of full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff working in public hospitals from 2017–18 to 2021–22.

Highlights

Public hospitals

In 2021–22:

• there were 438,500 FTE staff working in public hospitals
• of these, 41% (or 181,000) were Nurses and 12% (or 53,900) were Salaried medical officers. 

Between 2017–18 and 2021–22, the average annual increase in the total number of FTE staff was 3.8% — for Salaried medical officers it was 3.9%, and for Nurses it was 3.5%

Private hospitals 

In 2016–17 (most recent available data):

• there were 69,300 FTE staff working 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.

It should be noted that the staffing mix in private hospitals is different from that in public hospitals. This is because most medical services are provided by visiting medical specialists (who are not hospital employees), and the range of services provided is different.