A report released by the COAG Reform Council shows that governments have achieved mixed results in improving hospital care.

 

Council Chairman, Mr Paul McClintock said that areas that were in need of attention included elective surgery waiting times which, he said, "are not improving consistently across the country, particularly for those waiting the longest."

 

Mr McClintock said that emergency department waiting times have improved, with a higher proportion of patients were treated within national benchmarks.

 

An area of concern identified by the report was the affordability of healthcare. 

 

“We are concerned by the number of Australians who can’t afford to visit a doctor or buy their prescription medicine when they need to,” Mr McClintock said.

 

However, the report found that there were promising results in the area of preventative health.

 

The COAG Reform Council report, National Healthcare Agreement: Performance report for 2009 - 2010, is available here.