Dr Rachel David discusses the impact of inflation on hospitals and premiums on ABC Radio Brisbane
Well, look, this is part of the issue that the Federal Government and the health funds consider during the premium round process. So the private hospitals were invited to make submissions into that process about their own costs and the pressures that they were under during the pandemic, which we acknowledge. We acknowledge that the pandemic was tough on the private hospital sector. And then after the pandemic, they’ve had to contend with the inflationary pressures on wages, recruitment, power and food. And so that is acknowledged. There is a robust process by which health funds contract with hospitals to ensure that patients don’t have gaps on their hospitals