Canberra's public hospitals experienced the highest increase in the number of hospitalisations of the states and territories over last financial year, a new report has found.
The figures show the incredible pressure the system was under before the Omicron wave hit, which has seen hospitalisations surge. The territory reported a record-high number of COVID patients in hospitals on Tuesday, with 93 people being treated with the virus.
Separations from public hospitals in the ACT increased by 9.1 per cent year-on-year in 2020-21 from 118,737 to 129,547, a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has shown.
This was higher than the average annual increase in Canberra of 2.9 per cent over the past five years.
Overnight hospitalisations in Canberra public hospitals were up by 4.4 per cent and same-day separations for the ACT were up 14 per cent over the year, suggesting an uptick in the number of elective surgeries for the territory.
Not all data was available for private hospitals in the ACT and was not entirely covered in the report.
National hospitalisations, including private hospital admissions, rose by 6.3 per cent, up from 11.1 million in 2019-20 to 11.8 million in 2020-21.
The ACT had the highest increase in public hospital admissions, followed by Tasmania at 7.4 per cent and Queensland at 5.6 per cent. Public hospital separations in Victoria actually declined by 0.7 per cent - this was associated with ongoing COVID outbreaks in the state.
But while hospital admissions have risen, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has said the increase is largely attributed to an easing of restrictions on elective surgery.
Institute spokesman Adrian Webster said it reflected efforts by the states to clear the backlog of surgeries that had been created during the first lockdowns in 2020.
"Whilst we didn't have a lot of COVID necessarily in Canberra at that time there was all the other impacts that we saw on hospital activity, particularly elective surgery," Dr Webster said.
"Because whilst we've come back up to the previous trend, and maybe a little higher, that just means we're back meeting the demand that's coming in the door.
"Across the system there's a massive growth in the same-day activity. which has indicated that those less intensive procedures are where the focus has been to try and clear that backlog."
Elective surgeries have been postponed in Canberra over recent weeks as staffing shortages and rising COVID hospitalisations and flu cases have put extraordinary demand on the system.
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