'Low-value' procedures in public hospitals in NSW

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-11 03:00

Australia; NSW; VIC

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Aussie scientists investigated the rates of five services performed in NSW public hospitals which have limited benefits or none at all, to see if these were more common among patients with private health insurance. Overall, they were not more common among the privately insured, although the researchers say a small number of hospitals they looked at did have higher rates among privately-insured patients, and rates varied very widely between hospitals. Of the five services and procedures they investigated, the most common 'low-value' procedure was vertebroplasty - injecting bone cement into fractured vertebrae - at 30.8 procedures per 1,000 eligible patients overall. Rates of vertebroplasty varied between 13.1 to 70.4 per 1,000 eligible patients, they say. Further investigation could help reduce unnecessary procedures in our public hospitals, they conclude.