Specialists Health Sector Report

Technology continues to transform the specialist sector, including innovations in diagnostics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, and digital technologies.

These developments manifest themselves in less invasive and faster procedures, which are also less costly in the longer term, evidenced by the long-term growth in the proportion of day-only admissions and in private day hospitals.

Yet there are significant pressures on both public and private healthcare providers, along with private health insurers, to provide more value to consumers, especially in the context of increasing health expenditures. The overall burden of disease is also growing as the population ages, especially chronic disease.

The ANZ-Melbourne Institute Health Sector Trends Report – Specialists, led by Professor Anthony Scott, uses the latest health sector data to analyse the trends and challenges facing medical specialists (excluding General Practitioners (GPs)).

This is the second in a series of health sector-specific reports commissioned by ANZ, researched and written by Melbourne University, and follows the inaugural report in 2017 which examined GPs.

The Specialists report surveys trends and challenges in connection to the size and funding of the specialist sector and looks at issues around the drive for value, out-of-pocket payments and earnings, work–life balance and job satisfaction.