Why are private hospitals expensive?

Private hospitals are often perceived as expensive because, unlike public hospitals, they do not receive all their funding from the government. As a patient, you are charged for the treatments and services you receive. This is because private hospitals are run either as not-for-profit organisations or for-profit businesses. 

If you enter a private hospital, you may have to pay for:

• treatment by doctors
• treatment by other health professionals
• accommodation
• operating theatre fees
• medical imaging, pathology and other diagnostic test services
• prostheses costs (for example, plates, screws, artificial joints) 
• medicines and dressings
• costs for physiotherapy and other therapies in hospital.

Many people take out Hospital Cover to help pay for the cost of being treated as a private patient in a private hospital.