Ambulance ramping continues to be a critical symptom of the logjam in Australia's public hospitals. This year’s report paints a stark picture: in 2024–25, more patients than ever required ambulance services, with more than 2.4 million people arriving at emergency departments by ambulance and ambulance callout incidents reaching a record high.

Assertions that the Australian working medical workforce supply is low are common. However, this report finds that Australia’s supply per 1,000 of the population is nearly the highest in the OECD. The report proposes that the challenge for Australia is to shift acute medical care into the community and downsize hospitals.

In Australia, governments give hospitals a set amount of funding for each service provided to a patient, regardless of patient outcomes. This paper asks whether reducing payments to a hospital when a patient develops certain complications can lower the risk of complications occurring. Initial findings suggest financial mechanisms could be effective in lifting the quality...

The report presents state and territory performance results for public hospital capacity, emergency department waiting times and planned surgery waiting times; as well as public hospital expenditure. The report shows Australia’s public hospitals are continuing to struggle under sustained pressure. Overall performance remains significantly worse than it was ten years ago.

Winter 2025 was one of the toughest for Western Australia’s health system. Learning from this experience, this strategy sets out how WA Health is preparing for higher demand on health services during winter. It explains what WA health is doing to ensure people get the care they need, in the safest and most appropriate setting.