Hospitals at a glance

Hospitals play an important role in Australia’s health care system, providing care to millions of Australians each year. Services are provided both to admitted patients and non-admitted patients (through outpatient clinics and emergency departments).

Australia has public and private hospitals. Public hospitals are largely owned and managed by state and territory governments, with funding also provided by the Australian Government. Private hospitals are owned and managed by private organisations, some of which are not-for-profit. Private hospitals are funded by charges to patients that are often subsidised by government and private health insurance payments.

Spending on hospitals

Public and private hospitals are funded from various sources, including the Australian Government, state and territory governments, private health insurance funds and out-of-pocket payments by individuals. Hospitals vary in the types of services they provide, the patients they treat, funding sources, and other factors.

How much is spent on hospital care?

The $113.8 billion spent on hospitals in 2023–24 accounted for 42% of all health expenditure ($270.5 billion) and comprised an estimated:

• $53.1 billion (47%) from state and territory governments
• $41.2 billion (36%) from the Australian Government
• $19.5 billion (17%) from non-government sources (Figure 1).

Public hospitals

In 2023–24, a total of $90.8 billion was spent on public hospitals in Australia by:

• state and territory governments – $52.7 billion (58%)
• the Australian Government – $33.1 billion (36%)
• non-government entities – $5.0 billion (5.5%) (including individuals and private health insurers).

State and territory governments, which have primary responsibility for administering public hospitals, contributed the most funding.

Private hospitals

In 2023–24, an estimated total of $23.0 billion was spent on private hospitals by:

• private health insurance providers – $10.5 billion (46%)
• the Australian Government – $8.0 billion (35%)
• individuals – $2.4 billion (10%)
• other non-government sources – $1.6 billion (7.0%)
• state and territory governments – $481 million (2.1%).

Sixty-three per cent ($14.5 billion) of private hospital spending came from the non-government sector.

For more information, see Health expenditure Australia 2023–24.

Australian Government expenditure on hospital care listed in this section excludes Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and some Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) spending that relates to services provided in hospitals and that have not historically been treated as hospital spending.

Hospital workforce

Who works in our hospitals?

The hospital workforce in Australia is large and diverse, covering many occupations including medical officers, nurses, diagnostic and allied health professionals (such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists), administrative and clerical staff, and domestic and other personal care staff.

Public hospitals

Source: National Public Hospital Establishments Database.

The workforce described here includes people employed to manage and deliver public hospital services in public hospitals, within local hospital networks (LHNs) and state and territory health authorities. These staff numbers do not include visiting medical officers in public hospitals who are employed by the hospital on a contractual, rather than salaried basis.

For more information, see Hospital workforce.

Hospital activity

Emergency department care activity

How much care do our emergency departments provide?

In Australia, there are 293 public hospitals that have purpose-built emergency departments that are staffed 24 hours a day and provide care to patients who require urgent medical, surgical, or other attention.

In 2024–25, 70% of presentations occurred between 8 am and 8 pm. The busiest days for emergency department visits were Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays.

How urgent was the care?

When a patient presents to the emergency department, they are assigned a triage category by a registered nurse or medical practitioner that reflects the urgency of the patient’s need for medical and nursing care (Table 2).

Source: AIHW National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database.

In 2024–25, 27% of patients arrived at the emergency department by ambulance or air rescue service, with the remaining 73% arriving by other forms of transport, including by private car.

Why do people present to emergency departments?

A patient’s diagnosis is established at the end of the patient’s emergency department stay and identifies the main reason for their visit to the emergency department.

In 2024–25, the most common reason for a presentation at an emergency department was for ‘Symptoms, signs, and abnormal findings’ – accounting for 27% of presentations. ‘Symptoms, signs, and abnormal findings’ are symptoms such as abnormalities of heartbeat, abnormalities of breathing, chest pain, nausea and vomiting, headache, and convulsions that are not attributable to a specific diagnosis based on the information available at the time of the care.

The most common diagnoses recorded for emergency department presentations vary by the age of the patient (Figure 2).

For more information, see Emergency department care.

Admitted patient care activity

How many hospitalisations were there?

Admission to hospital is an administrative process that follows a doctor’s decision that a patient needs to be admitted for appropriate management or treatment of their condition, and/or for appropriate care or assessment of their needs. Patients may be admitted and discharged on the same day or may stay in hospital for one or more nights.

Since 2020–21, the number of hospitalisations has increased from around 11.8 million (7.0 million in public hospitals and 4.9 million in private hospitals). The rate of hospitalisations per 1,000 population over the same period increased in public hospitals from 249 to 253 per 1,000 population and decreased in private hospitals from 169 to 163 per 1,000 population. 

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Why do people go to hospital?

People experience different health issues at different times of their lives, so the reasons for hospitalisation vary by age and by sex. For example, in 2024–25:

• babies and children under 5 were hospitalised most often for Respiratory system diseases, whereas children aged 5–14 were most often hospitalised for Digestive system diseases
• males aged 15–24 were most often hospitalised for diagnoses related to Injury and poisoning, however, females in this age group were most often hospitalised for diagnoses related to Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium and Digestive system diseases
• adults aged 45 and over were most often hospitalised for Other factors influencing health status (Figure 3).

For more information, see Admitted patient care.

Elective surgery activity

How many people are admitted from elective surgery waiting lists?

For more information, see Elective surgery.

Non-admitted patient activity

How many services are provided in the outpatient setting?

Every year many Australians receive services via ‘outpatient’ or non-admitted patient clinics. These services are often associated with an emergency or admitted patient episode for which diagnostic or follow-up care is required without needing the person to be admitted to hospital.

This comprised:

• 22.7 million (52%) services provided in Allied health and/or clinical nurse specialist intervention clinics, which provide services by an allied health professional or clinical nurse specialist
• 14.1 million (32%) services provided in Medical consultation clinics, which provide services by a medical or nurse practitioner and may include input from allied health personnel and/or clinical nurse specialists
• 3.6 million (8.2%) services in Diagnostic service clinics, which provide imaging, screening, clinical measurement and pathology
• 3.3 million (7.5%) services in Procedural clinics, which provide minor surgical and non-surgical procedures (that do not require the patient to be admitted) by a surgeon or other medical specialist.

For more information, see Non-admitted patient care.

Hospital safety and quality

Regulatory systems and arrangements to ensure the safety and quality of hospital services in Australia include those for:

• medicines and devices
• health facilities
• the health workforce
• clinical standards and guidelines
• clinical governance arrangements.

Monitoring and improvement of care quality for particular illnesses and procedures also occurs, for example, through research projects, clinical quality registers and routinely collected health system data, such as the AIHW’s National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD). Patient experience surveys can also provide an indication of the quality of care provided from the patient’s perspective.

Hospital safety and quality measures reported include:

• Staphylococcus aureus blood stream infections (SABSI) acquired in hospital
• hospital-acquired complications such as birth trauma
• patient experience survey results.

Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections

Staphylococcus aureus (also known as S. aureus, or ‘Golden staph’) is a type of bacteria that can cause bloodstream infection (SABSI).

SABSI can be acquired as a result of medical care or treatment in a hospital. Contracting a bloodstream infection while in hospital can be life-threatening and hospitals aim to have as few cases as possible. The nationally agreed benchmark for healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections is no more than 1.0 case of healthcare-associated SABSI per 10,000 days of patient care for public hospitals in each state and territory.

Most SABSI cases (87%) were methicillin-sensitive and therefore treatable with commonly used antimicrobials.

Hospital-acquired complications

A hospital-acquired complication is a complication that arises during a patient’s hospitalisation which may have been preventable, and which can have a severe impact on both the patient and the care required. 

Hospital-acquired complications include pressure injuries, healthcare-associated infections, malnutrition, neonatal birth trauma, cardiac complications, and delirium. They may affect a patient’s recovery, overall outcome and can result in a longer length of stay in hospital. A patient may have one or more hospital-acquired complications during a hospitalisation.

In 2024–25, the most common hospital-acquired complications were related to:

• Healthcare associated infections (50,700 in public hospitals and 12,300 in private hospitals) 
• Medication complications (18,800 in public hospitals and 7,300 in private hospitals) 
• Surgical complications requiring unplanned return to theatre (17,000 in public hospitals and 8,600 in private hospitals).

In 2024–25, the average length of stay (ALOS) for overnight hospitalisations with at least one hospital-acquired complication was 18.0 days in public hospitals and 14.0 days in private hospitals, longer than the ALOS without a hospital-acquired complication reported (4.1 days and 3.5 days, respectively) (Figure 5).

What do patients say about their hospital experience?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) conducts an annual survey, Patient Experiences, to monitor the experiences of Australians who use a range of healthcare services. People who have received hospital care or emergency department care are asked about their experiences with health professionals (ABS 2025).

Emergency department

Among people who attended an emergency department in 2024–25: 

• 83% of patients responded that emergency department doctors and specialists ‘always’ or ‘often’ listened carefully to them
• 86% of patients responded that emergency department doctors ‘always’ or ‘often’ showed respect
• 78% of patients responded that emergency department doctors ‘always’ or ‘often’ spent enough time with them
• 88% of patients responded that emergency department nurses ‘always’ or ‘often’ listened carefully to them
• 90% of patients responded that emergency department nurses ‘always’ or ‘often’ showed respect
• 83% of patients responded that emergency department nurses ‘always’ or ‘often’ spent enough time with them in the emergency department. 

Admitted patients

Among people who received hospital care in 2024–25:

• 91% of patients responded that hospital doctors and specialists ‘always’ or ‘often’ listened carefully to them
• 92% of patients responded that hospital doctors and specialists ‘always’ or ‘often’ showed respect
• 88% of patients responded that hospital doctors and specialists ‘always’ or ‘often’ spent enough time with them
• 93% of patients responded that hospital nurses ‘always’ or ‘often’ listened carefully to them
• 94% of patients responded that hospital nurses ‘always’ or ‘often’ showed respect
• 89% of patients responded that hospital nurses ‘always’ or ‘often’ spent enough time with them.

For more information see:

• Admitted patient safety and quality
• Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
• Australian Bureau of Statistics Patient Experiences

Access to hospitals

Providing access to appropriate and timely hospital care is an integral component of health care. In essence, it is about being able to get the health care you need, when you need it.

A person’s ability to access appropriate and quality health care is influenced by their own health needs as well as factors such as where they live, their socioeconomic circumstances, and their cultural background (WHO 2006).

This section explores hospital accessibility by looking at the:

• number of services available, including hospitals and emergency departments
• location of services and hospitals
• waiting times to access elective surgery and emergency department care
• remoteness, socioeconomic characteristics and Indigenous status of the people who use hospital services.

Where are hospitals and beds located?

The number and type of hospitals, and the beds available, are measures of access to health care services. Public hospitals in Major cities are more likely to be larger and to offer a broader range of services, whereas hospitals in more remote areas tend to be smaller and offer fewer services. This can affect the timeliness and availability of services for people living in more remote areas.

In 2023–24, there were 704 public hospitals which varied in location, size, and services provided. Of these public hospitals, 195 were in Major cities, 396 were in Inner regional and Outer regional areas, and 113 were in Remote and Very remote areas.

Since 2019–20, the number of beds per 1,000 population in public hospitals has fallen by an average of 0.09% every year.

A majority of larger public hospitals and therefore a majority of hospital beds are located in more populated areas – 28% of hospitals and 69% of hospital beds are located in Major cities, 56% of hospitals and 29% of hospital beds are in Inner regional and Outer regional areas, and 16% of hospitals and 2.7% of hospital beds in Remote and Very remote areas.

Access to admitted patient care

In 2024–25, hospitalisation rates varied across socioeconomic levels and remoteness for public and private hospitals. 

For public hospitals, the highest rates of hospitalisation were for patients living in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic areas  (350 hospitalisations per 1,000 population) whereas for private hospitals, the highest rates were for patients living in the least disadvantaged socioeconomic areas (158 hospitalisations per 1,000 population). 

The highest rates of hospitalisation in private hospitals were for patients whose area of usual residence was in Major cities (177 hospitalisations per 1,000 population), whereas the highest rates of hospitalisations in public hospitals were for patients whose area of usual residence was in Very remote areas (678 hospitalisations per 1,000 population) (Figure 6).

For more information, see Admitted patient care.

Access to emergency department care

Waiting times

How long people wait in the emergency department before they receive care (waiting time) can be used as a measure of the accessibility of emergency department care.

Waiting time statistics are presented here as:

• the 50th percentile (median) waiting time, which represents the time within which half of all people are seen
• proportion ‘seen on time’ for their triage category.

Emergency department waiting time measures represent the time elapsed from presentation to commencement of clinical care (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Time spent in emergency department

Note: the length of the segments is illustrative only.

The median waiting time has stayed relatively consistent since 2020–21, when 50% of patients were seen within 18 minutes.

The proportion of patients seen on time for their triage category has remained stable since 2023–24. In 2024–25, the percentage of patients who were seen on time ranged from 100% of patients requiring immediate care (Resuscitation) to 61% of patients who needed care within 30 minutes (Urgent).

In 2024–25, 50% of emergency department presentations were completed within 3 hours and 48 minutes, and 90% were completed within 11 hours and 16 minutes.

For patients who were not subsequently admitted to hospital, 90% completed their care within 7 hours and 44 minutes, but for patients subsequently admitted to hospital, 90% completed their care within 18 hours and 57 minutes.

The time spent in the emergency department for 90% of patients also varied by triage category – ranging from 5 hours and 3 minutes for patients who needed care within 120 minutes (Non-urgent) to 16 hours and 20 minutes for patients requiring immediate care (Resuscitation).

For more information, see Emergency department care.

Access to surgery

People can be admitted to hospital for emergency surgery, or for less urgent procedures they can be booked in as part of an ‘elective’ (or planned) admission to hospital. ‘Elective’ in this context refers to there being some flexibility around the timing of the procedure, not whether the procedure itself is optional.

Access to surgical services can be affected by issues such as the person’s geographical location, the availability of other healthcare services, and how many people are on public hospital elective surgery waiting lists.

Emergency hospitalisations involving surgery

In 2024–25, around 398,000 hospitalisations were emergency admissions that involved surgery. Of these:

• 89% (353,000) were in public hospitals and 11% (45,300) were in private hospitals
• the 3 most common reasons for emergency admissions involving surgery were appendicitis, fractured femur and heart attack
• people living in Very remote areas were twice as likely to have an emergency admission involving surgery as people living in Major cities (26 compared with 12 hospitalisations per 1,000 population).

Elective hospitalisations involving surgery

In 2024–25, 2.6 million hospitalisations were elective admissions that involved surgery. Of these:

• 67% (1.7 million) were in private hospitals and 33% (848,000) were in public hospitals.
• the 3 most common reasons for elective admissions involving surgery were cataracts, skin cancer and procreative management
• the rate of elective surgery admissions involving surgery was higher among people living in Inner regional areas than people living in Very remote areas (91 compared with 63 hospitalisations per 1,000 population).

Admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists

Removal of cataracts was the most common procedure (accounting for 11% of all elective surgery admissions from public hospital waiting lists), followed by Skin lesions – excision of (7.6%). The most common surgical specialty was General surgery (20%), followed by Ophthalmology surgery and Urological surgery (both 15%).

For the 25 most common intended procedures in 2024–25, people living in Remote areas had the highest rate of admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists (36 hospitalisations per 1,000 population) followed by people in Very remote areas (32 hospitalisations per 1,000 population). People living in Major cities had the lowest rate of admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists (23 hospitalisations per 1,000 population).

Waiting times for admission to elective surgery

In 2024–25:

• 50% of patients admitted to hospital from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists waited for 45 days or less; this is a decrease in the median (50th percentile) waiting time since 2020–21, which was 48 days
• 90% of patients admitted to hospital from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists waited for 329 days or less; this is a decrease in the 90th percentile waiting time since 2020–21, which was 348 days
• 6.0% of people admitted for surgery waited more than 365 days compared to 6.4% a year before
• 50% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people were admitted to hospital within 59 days, compared with 50% of non-Indigenous Australians being admitted within 45 days

In 2024–25, for the 25 most common intended procedures:

• the time within which 50% of patients were admitted for their awaited procedure ranged from 37 days in Very remote areas to 49 days in Outer regional areas
• the time within which 50% of patients were admitted ranged from 15 days for people living in the least disadvantaged areas to 34 days for patients living in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic areas.

For more information, see Elective surgery.