Australia’s hospitals 2016–17 at a glance provides summary information on Australia’s public and private hospitals.

This report presents an overview of public hospitals in 2016–17, covering the number and types of hospitals and availability of beds. It also describes public hospitals in terms of recurrent expenditure, the number of full-time equivalent staff employed and the types of specialised services provided. Comparative information for the previous 4 reporting periods is included.

This report discusses the detrimental impacts of the changes on consumers, particularly those in regional Australia. The report also considers the appropriateness of communications that Bupa provided to policyholders about the changes.

In 2016–17, there were more than 11 million admissions to hospital—6.6 million in public hospitals and 4.4 million in private hospitals. In public hospitals, a large proportion of admissions (43%) were considered emergencies, while in private hospitals admissions were more likely to be elective or other planned care.

This report begins with a brief socio-legal history of donor conception in the State of Victoria. Then, in subsequent chapters based on case studies of the three hospital sites, it traces what information was collected about donors pre-1988, how it was recorded and managed, where the records were stored, and where those records are currently...