Public patients are routinely being treated in Australian private hospitals. Some jurisdictions have large-scale, planned programs where private or not-for-profit hospitals are contracted by the public sector to treat public inpatients (for example, Queensland’s Surgery Connect program). Often, however, ‘contracting’ is done on an ad hoc or short-term basis where private hospitals are asked, at short notice, to treat public patients to relieve pressure on public hospitals.
The purpose of this issue brief is to draw on the knowledge of senior health executives who have experience with short-term contracting and highlight some of the ways in which contracting arrangements could be changed so that they deliver better outcomes for patients, providers, and the health system.